Athlete biological passports

Setting the benchmarks above which an athlete is deemed to be a drug cheat is a difficult issue for sporting bodies. High levels of hormones do not always indicate cheating, and low levels do not always guarantee innocence.

For example, Finnish cross-country skiing champion Eero Mäntyranta, who won two gold medals in the 1964 Winter Olympics, had a genetic mutation which enabled him to produce unusually high levels of erythropoietin (EPO). How can we set fair benchmarks that catch the cheats but don’t return false positives on athletes operating by the rules?

One solution introduced in 2009 is statistical profiling, which essentially allows testers to create a ‘biological passport’ for each athlete. Athlete Biological Passports (ABPs) are a unique, personalised electronic record of an athlete’s biological values, developed over time from multiple collections of blood samples.

The ABP collates data on the levels of different substances in the body, during and after exercise, and uses this to construct a profile, effectively determining natural levels of various substances in the body for each individual. From this information, testers can assess if an athlete suddenly has a large jump in certain hormones or proteins in their blood, when compared against their normal levels. This could indicate that doping has occurred.

The initial ABPs contained a standardised approach to the profiling of an athlete’s haematological variables (blood module) for the detection of blood doping. Since 2014 ABPs also include a steroidal module, which monitors selected urinary steroid concentrations over time to monitor for potential steroid doping.

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) notes that ‘The ABP differs from traditional detection methods by looking for the effects of blood doping rather than detecting the prohibited substances or methods used. The advantage of this approach is the biological effects of a performance-enhancing agent are commonly present and detectable for a longer period than the agent itself.’

Information gathered from the ABP is used in conjunction with traditional testing methods, providing officials with additional data with which to determine an athlete’s possible guilt or innocence.

While the ABP’s are not perfect, there is no doubt their presence deters some athletes from doping, resulting in cleaner, fairer sporting events for us to enjoy.