Athletics Integrity Unit Chairman David Howman warned of the system’s inability to defeat cheating.
Published December 12, 2025
The global fight against doping is at a “stagnation” as athletes evade detection systems that are unable to keep up with increasingly sophisticated cheating, a leading anti-doping official has warned.
Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) chairman David Howman, who has already delivered a scathing review at last week’s World Congress on Doping in Sport, declared that despite the organization’s track record of identifying rule breakers, it was “not catching enough people”.
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According to the AIU’s annual report, the number of international disciplinary cases filed by the AIU increased from 62 in 2021 to 100 in 2024, while domestic disciplinary cases increased from 185 to 305.
“Let’s be honest and realistic…deliberate dopers at the elite level are escaping detection. We are not doing enough today to catch cheaters,” said Howman, who previously served as executive director of the World Anti-Doping Agency for 13 years.
Among the elite athletes banned or suspended this year is women’s marathon world record holder Ruth Chepgetich, a Kenyan who admitted violating anti-doping rules.
Chepgetic was given a three-year ban, but her record will remain in the record books as having been set before she tested positive.
Others include Olympic 100m silver medalist Fred Curley of the United States, who was provisionally suspended in August for failure to attend, and world 100m silver medalist Marvin Bracey, who last month accepted a 45-month sanction for an anti-doping rule violation.
Howman’s candid confession highlights an alarming reality for clean sports advocates. Education programs can help deter some potential cheaters, but are powerless against the most determined rule breakers at the sport’s highest levels, he said.
“We have great educational programs that help, but they don’t impact intentional rule-breaking in elite sport,” Hauman acknowledged.
The AIU director general warned that the system’s inability to defeat cheating was undermining public confidence in anti-doping efforts.
“Our ineffective response to those who break the rules undermines the credibility of the anti-doping movement and risks our clean sport message falling on deaf ears,” he said.
Mr Howman also called for a fundamental shift from simply adhering to compliance rules to supporting “ambitious anti-doping operations” that can actually catch sophisticated cheating.
“It would be beneficial for WADA and leading ADOs (anti-doping organizations) to work closely together on research priorities and opportunities, and to refocus scientific research,” he added.
“[WADA’s]international standards may need to be regularly scrutinized to ensure they fully support investigative efforts to uncover doping.”
