How Doping Control Actually Works, From the Knock on the Door to the Lab Report

Doping control isn't a movie scene where someone bursts into the locker room shouting. It's a fairly bureaucratic process with defined steps, deadlines, and thresholds expressed in actual numbers. Here's how it works, from the moment an officer taps you on the shoulder to the moment the lab issues a result.

Who tests, and under what rules

The framework comes from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) through the World Anti-Doping Code. Actual testing is done by national anti-doping organisations, international federations, and major event organisers. The Prohibited List is published by 1 October at the latest and takes effect on 1 January of the following year. So it changes once a year, and that's the only date a competitor really has to keep in mind.

The List has three groups: substances banned at all times (anabolic agents, growth hormone, EPO, diuretics and masking agents), banned in-competition only (stimulants, narcotics, cannabinoids, glucocorticoids given orally or by injection), and banned in particular sports (beta-blockers in shooting, archery, billiards). The in-competition period normally starts at 23:59 the day before the event and runs until sample collection afterwards is finished.

In-competition versus out-of-competition testing

In-competition testing is predictable: typically the top three finishers plus one or two randomly drawn athletes. What actually catches people is out-of-competition testing, because it arrives unannounced at 6 a.m., on holiday, or in the middle of an off-season block.

To make that possible, athletes in a registered testing pool file their location — the whereabouts system — every three months, for every single day of the quarter: overnight address, training, competitions, and one 60-minute slot between 05:00 and 23:00 where they must be available at a stated address. Any three failures in 12 months — any mix of missed tests and filing failures — counts as a rule violation, punished by one to two years of ineligibility. No positive test required.

The collection itself, step by step

1. The officer identifies you and hands over the notification. From that moment you're under continuous observation and normally have up to 60 minutes to report to the doping control station.
2. You pick a sealed collection vessel from at least three offered, and check yourself that it's intact.
3. Urination is directly observed — a chaperone of the same sex watches the sample leave the body. There's no privacy, and that's deliberate.
4. You need a minimum of 90 mL. Give less and it's sealed as a partial sample while you wait to produce the rest.
5. You choose an A/B bottle kit, pour roughly 60 mL into A and 30 mL into B, and seal them yourself.
6. The officer measures specific gravity with a refractometer; the sample must read at least 1.005. Too dilute means you provide another one.
7. You declare every medication and supplement used in the last 7 days on the form, then sign that the procedure was done correctly.
8. For blood, usually 2–3 tubes of 3–4 mL each, on condition that you haven't trained for 2 hours and have been seated quietly for 10 minutes.

What happens in the lab

Samples travel without your name, under a code number only. The A bottle is analysed first, mostly by mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS), which detects concentrations down to nanograms per millilitre. For testosterone, the first screen is the testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio; anything above 4:1 triggers carbon isotope ratio analysis, which distinguishes your own hormone from a synthetic one.

If the finding is adverse, you can request the B bottle be opened and attend in person. B must confirm A, or the case collapses. Samples are stored for up to 10 years and can be re-tested with newer methods — which is why medals sometimes get stripped eight years after the event.

The Athlete Biological Passport

When a substance clears the blood fast, as with EPO microdosing, they look indirectly instead. The blood passport tracks haemoglobin, reticulocyte percentage and a calculated OFF-score across dozens of samples over years. Software sets your personal limits, and anything outside them is reviewed by three independent haematologists. A steroidal module does the same for your urinary hormone profile.

Supplements and the contamination excuse

Unlike medicines, supplements in most countries face no mandatory content testing. A well-known IOC study analysed 634 products and found undeclared prohormones in 14.8% of them; later work reports similar figures, roughly 10–25% depending on category. The athlete is responsible for everything that enters their body, regardless of intent. If you compete in a tested federation, the only sensible approach is batch-tested products with independent certification, and keeping the tub and the receipt.

When to see a doctor

If you have a chronic condition treated with a prohibited drug — asthma, type 1 diabetes, ADHD, hypothyroidism, inflammatory bowel disease — you need a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). Apply in advance with medical documentation; a panel of physicians decides, and retroactive approval is granted only in emergencies.

A few specific thresholds are worth knowing before that appointment: salbutamol is permitted up to 1600 micrograms per 24 hours and no more than 600 micrograms in any 8 hours, with a urine reading above 1000 ng/mL treated as presumptively adverse. Pseudoephedrine is banned in-competition above 150 micrograms per millilitre of urine, a level a full dose of cold medicine reaches easily. So tell every doctor and pharmacist that you're a tested athlete before they prescribe anything.

The short version

• The Prohibited List changes on 1 January each year — read it once a year, properly.
• Out-of-competition testing and the whereabouts system catch more people than event-day controls; three failures in 12 months costs 1–2 years.
• A standard urine sample is at least 90 mL with a specific gravity of 1.005 or higher, split into A and B bottles.
• Samples are stored for up to 10 years and re-tested as methods improve.
• Supplements are no defence: 10–25% of tested products contained undeclared substances, and responsibility always sits with the athlete.