WADA exposes NADA misdoings: Missed dope tests, faulty system, whereabouts failures

The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) four-year investigation into India’s anti-doping programme has exposed a slew of missed dope tests, faulty result management system and whereabouts failures, it was revealed in a report published on Tuesday. As a part of its operation, the WADA also monitored 13 ‘high-level’ Indian athletes ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games and one of them tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
The in-depth investigation – titled ‘Operation Carousel’ – began in 2019, after an anonymous ‘allegation’ and tip-off on its ‘confidential information platform’ in 2017, and is still ongoing, the world body said. During this period, the anti-doping watchdog audited India’s anti-doping programme, interviewed National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) officials, monitored dozens of athletes and reviewed the data about hundreds of others.
The study unearthed glaring lapses, forcing the WADA to write multiple times to the Indian body, expressing concerns about its ‘capabilities and practices’. The global agency also noted that NADA’s ‘supervision of whereabouts was inadequate, that there was a lack of sufficient testing, and did not have an effective intelligence or investigative capability.’
“The investigation monitored select sports and athletes within India and, as a result, in cooperation with NADA, 12 positive tests (Adverse Analytical Findings) and 97 whereabouts failures of 70 athletes were identified. These are now subject to result management processes as appropriate,” the WADA said in a statement.
The WADA’s Intelligence and Investigation department, which carried out the operation, even put 13 ‘high-level’ Indian athletes, who trained abroad, on their radar in May 2022, before the Commonwealth Games. Four of them did not reveal their whereabouts, as mandated the anti-doping code, one provided false information and one failed a dope test, according to the report. The WADA, however, did not give away any names.
Further, the world body found out that out of 131 athletes in NADA’s testing pool last year, more than a quarter had not filed their whereabouts and 28 of them were not tested for performance-enhancing substances even once in the entire year. When NADA was forced to conduct dope tests on those athletes, one tested positive and was sanctioned.
And this year, ‘NADA reported to Operation Carousel that ultimately, between 17 November 2022 and 16 May 2023, it had discovered and recorded 97 Whereabouts Failures against 70 Athletes.’

Tip of the iceberg
These damning revelations mean that in a country with the second-highest doping cases in the world, only behind Russia, there could be many more who may have evaded the net.
According to the WADA code, athletes – usually those in the country’s testing pool – have to provide a 60-minute slot every day where they will be available for a dope test. These fall under Out-of-Competition tests, which form the bedrock of the anti-doping programme.
While athletes are frequently tested in competition, out-of-competition tests allow anti-doping sleuths to monitor them during training or off-season.
WADA said that it launched Operation Carousel after receiving an ‘allegation’ that ‘certain elements of NADA’s testing programme were not in accordance with the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Code and the International Standard for Testing and Investigation and the International Standard for Result Management’.
Before launching the project, WADA found in 2017 that the Indian body was ‘severely understaffed’ and identified ‘several non-conformities’. It led to them issuing what they call a ‘Corrective Action Report’.
Two years later, in 2019, Operation Carousel was launched and the investigators began monitoring select sports and athletes in India, the report said. At first, they targeted Indian powerlifters which led to seven athletes being caught and sanctioned.
“In 2021, in preparation for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Operation Carousel began examining the doping practices (e.g. substances, sports, prevalence) and patterns of Indian Athletes,” the report said, adding that the data of 192 Indian athletes was reviewed for this purpose.
Based on the recommendations of this study, ‘target testing was conducted on 13 high-level Indian Athletes training abroad’. “Operation Carousel had been monitoring these Athletes for some time,” the report said and the testing led to one positive test, among other inconsencies.
The WADA did not mention if any action will be taken against the Indian agency for its lapses but highlighted a few corrective measures adopted, including the appointment of a ‘dedicated investigator and two intelligence staff’.

“Moreover, with the help of WADA, NADA is receiving external assance to help develop and strengthen its anti-doping programmes, including its investigative and intelligence capacities. To that end, Operation Carousel maintains an active interest in the development of an investigative and intelligence capability within NADA,” the report concluded.