Sports inside
The Biological Athlete Passport (ABP) is intended to uncover doping abuse, but this has not always been successful. A new procedure should now further optimize the test system, says doping expert Mario Thevis.
The procedure was developed by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an organization based in Switzerland. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) included the changes in its program on Tuesday (08/22/2023). The procedure is intended to prove the inadmissible administration of steroids such as testosterone – and could decisively advance the fight against doping abuse.
At the beginning of the year, WADA published its annual report for 2021, in which it lists positive doping tests as “undesirable analytical result”. They have identified 2,197 such cases at WADA, of which 875 (40 percent) are accounted for “Anabolic Agents”so on anabolic steroids.
“The expansion of the biological athlete passport has a special added value for anti-doping work”Thevis tells Sport inside. He is head of the Institute for Biochemistry and Professor for preventive doping research at the German Sport University in Cologne. The new procedure offers “Possibility of detecting the abuse of anabolic agents such as testosterone” and carry with it “contributes to the further optimization of the previous test system.”
That sounds complicated, and it is complicated. An overview.
What is the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP)?
The Athlete Biological Passport has existed since 2009 and was introduced by WADA. It is an electronic profile for athletes that can identify doping abuse.
During doping controls, data from urine and whole blood samples are assigned to the individual profile of athletes from professional sports. This is how an individual normal value is formed. Over a longer period of time, abnormalities and deviations can be identified. This can be a so-called natural variability, but it can also be an indication of doping abuse.
Which two modules does the ABP have?
A distinction is made between the so-called haematological module, also known as the blood pass, and the steroid module.
In the haematological module, a small blood count is taken from whole blood samples in the laboratories commissioned for this purpose. The haematological module is not used for every doping test, it must be ordered separately.
The steroid module has only been used since 2014, it is used for urine samples. So far, the steroid values have only been measured in urine, but that was complicated: abnormalities in this module indicate doping with anabolic steroids. But supplied steroids, such as testosterone, could not be easily distinguished from the body’s own in the urine. This required an expensive and time-consuming additional analysis. That should change now.
Which innovation is presented now?
The steroid module is being expanded and blood samples will also be used here in the future. And that could make doping abuse a lot more difficult. By using blood samples, says doping expert Mario Thevis, abuse of testosterone, for example, can be detected more precisely. In men, but especially in women.
Testosterone is a sex hormone found in both men and women. But men produce a lot more of it, it’s the main male sex hormone. Testosterone is produced by the body, but can also be supplied artificially.
“In male athletes, testosterone doses are generally well detectable by urinalysis”, says Thevis. This is much more difficult for female athletes. “Here, serum analyzes offer a comparatively significantly higher chance of success with regard to the detection of testosterone abuse. This has recently been proven in various studies.”