March 29, 2013 (Paris, France) – Rugby is the sport most affected by doping in France declared Françoise Lasne, director of the department of analysis of the French anti-doping agency (AFLD), while addressing a French senate commission on March 26 and as reported by Le Monde. Her department came to this conclusion after a vast study that examined the percentage of positive doping tests (out of about 400 samples or more) in many different sports and conducted in 2012.

“Rugby is the sport with the biggest doping problem, followed by football (soccer), athletics, triathlon, basketball, cycling, handball & swimming,” declared Lasne. Beyond the rankings, however, she did not clarify what percentage of positive tests was found for each sport.

We do know that cycling provided by far the greatest number of samples (1,812) to the AFLD, an indication of how it is the most tested sport in France. This number includes both negative and positive tests. Athletics provided the second greatest number of samples (1,164), followed by rugby (588), soccer (548), handball (452), triathlon (433), swimming (418) and basketball (394). The source article indicates that these numbers are for the year 2002, but Pedal suspects that this is a typographical error and is meant to read “2012.”

Among the illicit substances most commonly detected by the tests, cannabinoids were the first cited (28.4 %), followed by glucocorticosteroids (22.8 %). “Even if we exclude cannabis, rugby is still the sport most affected by doping, followed by  athletics, triathlon, cycling, swimming, soccer, basketball and handball,” noted Lasne.

It was Lasne who co-developed the detection method for recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) in 2000.  In 2010, she was appointed head of the French anti-doping laboratory LNDD of Châtenay-Malabry, which is part of the AFLD.

Pedal is unaware of any similar analysis conducted in Canada of the percentage of positive doping tests by sport.

AFLD – French anti-doping agency HERE
Le Monde article (in French) HERE.