The vast majority of Irish athletes consider drug-taking to be cheating, but about four in 10 admit to knowing athletes who have used banned substances.
Over 90 per cent of sports people in Ireland feel that deliberately using banned substances to improve performance was ‘morally wrong under any circumstances,’ according to a Sport Ireland doping survey.
Athletes were far more likely to believe that they would be tested in competition than out of competition despite the reality in the Irish context that 75% of tests are currently conducted out of competition. 60% from team sports believed that they would not be tested out of competition.
The online questionnaire was carried out between August last year and February this year and attracted 148 high performance athletes representing 14 sports.
Athletics (250), Cycling (156), Rugby (113) and GAA (97) remain the most tested in Irish sport, with Sport Ireland having a policy of testing in areas where they believe have the highest risk of doping.
As for Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) in Ireland, rugby tops the list with 11 approved out of the 12 sought. GAA is second with eight granted out of nine sought.
Breakdown of therapeutic use exemptions across Irish sport in 2016. pic.twitter.com/N4RrPLOpcR
— Cathal Dennehy (@Cathal_Dennehy) March 23, 2017
You can check out Sport Ireland’s annual anti-doping review in full here.
