Doping Saga: A Story Without a Climax

Editor's Note

This article titled ' Doping Saga - A story without a climax ' by Dr PSM Chandran is pertaining to a rather unfamiliar/ less read subject concerning the sports world of sportsmen, coaches , doctors ,sports sciences and sports medicine, etc.

The same should interest readers connected with sports , especially those at national and international levels to whom this subject concerns. For unfamiliar readers this introductory knowledge about WADA as per Wikipedia would help.

What the author brings out would be an eye opener to many concerning the adverse impact of WADA sanctions against some of our elite sportsmen who need the cover,support and backing of NADA and apex sports bodies particularly if the basis of WADA sanctions aren't fair or objective and have not actually enhanced the performance of these targeted athletes !

EDITOR, MVI

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; French: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is an international organization co-founded by the governments of over 140 nations along with the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code, whose provisions are enforced by the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport. The aims of the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention and the United States Anti-Doping Agency are also closely aligned with those of WADA.

---

By :- Dr P. S. M. Chandran

The saga of doping control continues without insight, accountability, or a convincing climax. India has topped the global list of doping positives for the third consecutive year, yet no one appears willing to take responsibility for this dubious achievement.

According to figures released by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), 7,113 samples were collected from Indian athletes in 2024, of which 260 tested positive for substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). On sheer numbers, this places India at the top of the so-called global “doping table.”

The Foundations of Doping Control

WADA justifies its anti-doping regime primarily on two grounds. First, that prohibited substances enhance performance and provide dopers with an unfair advantage. Second, that these substances are harmful to health and may even be fatal. These arguments appear logical and have been widely accepted by the sporting community. Backed by them, WADA pursues athletes relentlessly across the globe. Those who question the WADA Code are often branded as apologists for doping and pushed to the margins.

What is increasingly overlooked, however, is a core principle of medical science: medicine must be evidence-based. Doping control, in contrast, often functions on presumption rather than proof.

Two fundamental questions therefore deserve objective examination—without taking sides, either of WADA or of the athlete.

Do Drugs Truly Enhance Performance?

In 2024 alone, 260 Indian athletes were declared positive for banned substances. Hundreds more have been sanctioned in previous years, either during training or competition. The obvious but unanswered question is this: did these athletes actually enhance their sporting performance?

Were they consistently outperforming their peers? Were records being broken because of drug use? Where are the sport-specific, peer-reviewed studies that correlate detected substances with measurable performance gains in real-world competition?

If drugs are as powerfully performance-enhancing as claimed, this should be demonstrable through objective data. Let NADA and the National Sports Federations publish transparent analyses of athletes’ performances before, during, and after the period of alleged doping. Without such evidence, the claim that banned substances universally enhance performance remains belief, not science.

Health Hazards: Claim Versus Evidence

The second pillar of anti-doping—the assertion that drugs are gravely injurious to health—also demands scrutiny. Of the 260 Indian athletes who tested positive in 2024, and the many more sanctioned in earlier years, how many required hospitalisationfor drug-related illness? How many needed outpatient treatmentfor complications directly attributable to these substances?

Most crucially, how many athletes have died due to doping, as established by medical records or autopsy findings?

To date, there is no publicly available autopsy evidence in India conclusively attributing an athlete’s death to the consumption of WADA-banned substances. If such data exist, they should be placed in the public domain. If not, the narrative of widespread, life-threatening harm needs serious re-examination.

Many substances on the WADA Prohibited List are routinely prescribed for legitimate therapeutic use in the general population. If these drugs are inherently lethal, where is the evidence that athletes—often younger and fitter—are being disproportionately maimed or killed compared to non-athletes using the same substances under medical supervision?

The Indian Paradox

India presents a particularly striking paradox. Consider the case of the country’s iconic woman discus thrower, sanctioned on three separate occasions for doping violations, yet continuing to remain hale and hearty. This is not an argument in favour of doping, but it does challenge the claim that the health consequences of doping are inevitably  castrophic Seema Punia Antil- Discuss thrower . Habitual offender with fhree doping sanctions

Once again, the question arises: how many Indian athletes have died due to doping, confirmed by forensic or pathological evidence?

Justice, Science, and the Athlete

Doping may indeed be injurious to sport. Fair play matters, and cheating cannot be condoned. However, doping control in its present format is also injurious to athletes, because it adheres rigidly to the WADA Code while often disregarding evidence-based medicine, proportionality, and natural justice.

Sanctions are imposed largely on the basis of analytical positives, with little consideration of clinical outcomes, performance data, or actual harm. In the absence of robust evidence, careers are destroyed, reputations tarnished, and livelihoods lost.

When regulation becomes dogma and belief substitutes for data, justice is the first casualty. Perhaps the time has come—provocatively stated—to dismantle and rebuild an anti-doping system that has drifted away from scientific balance.

Looking Ahead

Change may already be on the horizon. The proposed “Enhanced Games,” scheduled for May 2026, promise to openly challenge WADA’s long-standing orthodoxy. Whether this experiment will validate or demolish the myth surrounding performance enhancement remains to be seen.

Until then, the doping saga continues—still searching for evidence, transparency, and fairness. It remains, for now, a story without a climax.