Today's article :
Doping: the limits of the biological passport
Presented as the parade against blood doping, the biological passport is a collateral victim of the corruption scandal that hits world athletics.
Roselyne Bachelot was right. In October 2007, two months before the introduction of the biological passport in cycling, the former Minister of Health and Sports ensured that we attended there for "a radical change that will mark (it) the history of the struggle doping ". Indeed, the biological passport - which compiles hematology sports made during the inspections - has marked the history of anti-doping, but not exactly how Ms Bachelot envisaged.
Become the indispensable tool of blackmail led an amazing behind the scenes of world athletics, it is the collateral victim of the scandal that shook the International Athletics Federation (IAAF). The Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), the result of significant scientific advances presented at birth as the parade researchers blood doping, has never been as much talk about him.
Abnormal variations
In an ironic reversal of history, it is the users of the most zealous biological passport which highlighted weaknesses, using for personal gain access to blood data of athletes: Lamine Diack, the former president of a federation that was the second to set up the system, and his former boss Medical and Anti-Doping Department, Gabriel Dollé, who was promoting. They have been indicted by the national financial prosecutor as Habib Cissé, personal legal adviser Lamine Diack.
"All three agreed that the treatment of Russian biological passports has been achieved in an unusual way," summarized the prosecutor Eliane Houlette Thursday, January 14, in the closing press conference of the Independent Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA ), held in Munich.
Indirect detection of doping tool, the biological passport in his hematological pane, the only really developed to date, can detect abnormal blood changes and punish illegal manipulations, although no prohibited substance was detected during controls. It became possible to judge the integrity of a sport by studying changes in the hemoglobin - the protein found in red cells and promotes the transport of oxygen -, the evolution of its reticulocyte - its cells young red - and clues obtained from different blood data, including off-score. In theory, a handful of samples can be enough to confuse a cheater. If abnormal data are identified, they are submitted to a panel of three experts, who will determine whether these variations can not be explained other than by doping.
Targeting athletes
The IAAF has established the biological passport in 2009, a year after the International Cycling Union (UCI). First athlete suspended on the basis of its PBA in 2012, the obscure Portuguese Helder Ornelas marathoner has since been joined by 68 other athletes. Either the vast majority of the 85 athletes alike, the UCI claiming 13 of his side.
The contribution of the passport is not limited to the suspension of these 85 cheats for most anonymous of their sport. On the one hand, it allows the targeting of athletes suspicious blood values on which the controls are now concentrated. "The passport has always been a way to target, said the Director General of WADA, David Howman. And now it can lead to nighttime checks [authorized since 2015], as the passport can be an element that leads to think, we have to catch this guy the night. "
Moreover, its power is deterrent, at least initially. "You measure the results by number of open cases, but the passport is primarily a tool for targeting and deterrence, argues Francesca Rossi, President of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF), an independent panel convened by the UCI. Deterrence is a very important way to combat doping. Scientific papers have shown that the lack of biological passport caused an increase in doping practices. "
"It is obvious that the behavior of a large number of sports has changed since the introduction of the passport, abounds Michel Audran, professor of pharmacy at the University Montpellier I, blood doping specialist and expert for the IAAF. This has at least put an end to certain abuses. When looking at passports, if there was 10% to 20% of abnormal early -all passports are not subject to sanctions - we fell significantly to less than 5%. There has been a change. "
Thomas Capdevielle, who co-directs with Pierre-Yves Garnier, the anti-doping department of the IAAF, is also convinced that long term, the biological passport is preferable to traditional methods. "If we are given the choice, for an athlete, between going to a couple of EPO tests, the detection windows are reduced, and invest in the passport to the controls, the second option will be taken, he says .With the passport, it will be a matter of time, from the time when it was abnormal data. "A question of time, but how?
Who's Who of athletics
In 2001, the IAAF has taken the initiative to blood tests in order to better understand its athletes and to target certain. The results were striking. German television channel ARD and the British newspaper Sunday Times in August 2015 revealed the worrying proportion of abnormal values in endurance events specialists, having got hold of a database of some 12 500 samples taken between 2001 and 2012. The IAAF has complained to the following revelations around this database. Among the athletes with very atypical values, certain hazardous to health, a significant proportion has never been suspended for doping, as was evident Le Monde, which has obtained the dizzying database.
The world
Some of these athletes showed abnormal values before 2009 and could not be sanctioned on the basis of a biological passport, then non-existent, as noted by the independent commission of WADA. But others have obviously continued to handle blood or to help stimulants erythropoiesis, such as EPO, favoring oxygen uptake. The IAAF has no more able or willing to suspend. This database endless and uncontrolled data veritable Who's Who of athletics 2000s, allows finger touch the current limits of the PBA.
Several leading Russian athletes whose biological passport showed abnormal data from 2009 or 2010 were involved in the London Games in 2012. It was not until 2014 or 2015 that they were finally suspended. Their cases, however, settled for a long time by the committee of three experts - the French Michel Audran, German Olaf Schumacher and the Italian Giuseppe D'Onofrio for the IAAF - dragged on. Habib Cissé, counsel IAAF staff, addressed these issues in its own way, with the blessing of Gabriel Dollé and Lamine Diack. Investigators ascertained that such long delays are due to corruption.
Olympics 2020: suspicions about doping
This is a footnote page containing the potentially most explosive revelation of the report of the independent commission of WADA released January 14.
"It is said that Turkey has lost the support of LD [Lamine Diack, a former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations] because they have not paid 4 to $ 5 million sponsorship to the Diamond League [major athletics circuit] or the IAAF, is it written in footnote 36 on page 34. According to the report [the conversation], the Japanese would have paid such a sum. The Olympics were awarded in 2020 in Tokyo. "
This contract was mentioned during a discussion between a son of Diack, Ibrahima, and the family of the Turkish athlete Asli Alptekin. Ibrahima Diack would thus wanted to believe that he could choke a case of abnormal biological passport.
But all the time does not necessarily hide irregularities on the part of the IAAF. Doping department of the institution, as in other international federations, it stresses the cumbersome procedures. "There's a long process to follow from the time the profile is atypical," says Thomas Capdevielle. A "process" which often takes several months or even years when the athlete out of competition is difficult to control.
Microdosing
Athletics is however not the worst off. At the establishment of the PBA, anti-doping officials faced an unmanageable situation, with cartoonish passport data accumulating on their offices. The World Championships in Daegu (South Korea), where some 2,000 athletes tested gave cold sweats to those responsible for the IAAF. "We were overwhelmed by the amount of cases of passports [abnormal] explains Stéphane Bermon today outside consultant to the IAAF, after resigning from its Anti-Doping Commission in early 2014. It was not like in cycling, where they had it at the beginning. And cyclists are smart, they soon learned to bypass the passport with microdosing, etc. But here we had heavy, there were incredible changes with dozens of cases, including many Russians. "Capdevielle Thomas agrees:" We found ourselves a little congested, victim of the success of the biological passport. "
The "success" of the PBA in athletics is however already quite relative. First, it penalizes almost exclusively of athletes in endurance disciplines, from 1500 meters to 50 kilometers walk. Sprinters, whom blood doping provides less net benefits are almost immune. Second, it puts athletes on the same level of inequality than conventional doping tests: the smartest or best know scientifically surrounded thwart the biological passport to be used as a compass, including maintaining their blood data in acceptable limits. These are easy to monitor because each athlete can view their profile in the name of the right of access to medical data.
"Among the athletes of very high level now, I'm not sure that the results are very convincing," says Michel Rieu, a former scientific adviser to the French Agency for fight against doping. The sports stars also have significant financial resources, sometimes higher than the legal services of international federations, and are able to appeal to scientists and lawyers defending their case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Concerned about their reputation and their finances, some federations have become very cautious at the time of sanctioning a biological passport.
Some workarounds are known. Overhydration - Quickly drink a liter of water prior to blood collection - much disturbs the efficiency of the passport. The micro doses of EPO are virtually undetectable, as shown by a study of Australian hematologist Michael Ashenden. "I know at least six other [workarounds] that disrupt the model," suggests Pierre Sallet physiologist, a specialist in doping.
For him, the biological passport could also be used as a medical prevention tool, just like his distant cousin, the longitudinal follow. This track also would temporarily deviate from sports competitions to abnormal values, said Pierre Sallet: "We will not say if he comes to doping or something else, but there are variables that we do not understand and that for the athlete's health with this blood profile, there is a risk of taking part in the competition. It could then be excluded 15 days. "
Would the biological passport already passed? Surely in part, yes, for his part hematology. "At first, it was easy. Now, the passport must make real progress, we must not stand still, "insists Francesca Rossi, responsible for the fight against doping in cycling. A meeting of all players in the PBA was held in Doha in November 2015 to consider ways to simplify the technical and administrative process and help experts develop "doping scenarios," those they imagine are before assert that a given blood profile is evidence of a doping practice.
Scientists continue to work on a real-steroidal component, which would provide indirect evidence of the taking of endogenous steroids. The endocrine component, which aims to detect the use of growth hormone, is still at an embryonic stage. While being critical of the biological passport, Pierre Sallet summarizes its importance: "Fortunately it's there. It's like the EPO test: if he was not there, we would fall in the years 1990-2000. "
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