Russian athletes had the most positive doping tests in 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said in its annual report published late Monday. WADA-accredited laboratories conducted 229,412 tests in total two years ago of which 2,522 were positive, more than the 2,287 in 2014 but but 18 less than the 2,540 in 2013. Of those, 1,649 were sanctioned, and 280 adverse findings - from 252 athletes and 28 support personnel - came from non-analytical violations without positive tests, such as whereabouts failures, tampering with samples, possession and trafficking of banned substances.
Russia, under pressure over wide-ranging doping practices according to WADA investigator Richard McLaren, had a leading 176 positive tests, followed by Italy (129) and India (117) from a record 122 countries. Bodybuilding was the sport with the most positives, 270, followed by the Olympic sports of athletics (242), weightlifting (239) and cycling (200). Football was sixth in the list from 85 sports overall with 108 adverse findings. WADA president Craig Reedie spoke of "a significant increase in intelligence-based anti-doping rule violations," for instance with the help of whistleblowers.
