Over 40% of Irish athletes say they know a doper

Of 1003 anti-doping tests carried out by Sport Ireland last year, four resulted in rule violations. Yet, over 40% of Irish athletes surveyed by Sport Ireland claimed to personally know someone who used banned substances.

Those were the standout figures at the 2016 Irish Anti-Doping Review, presented yesterday at the National Indoor Arena in Dublin. The doping rule violations of Paralympic cyclist James Brown and motorcyclist Ross Fanning were already known about. We learned yesterday the case of Michael O’Reilly is still pending, after the boxer was sent home from Rio 2016.

And we discovered that a fourth, unnamed Irish sports person failed an in-competition test in 2016, with Sport Ireland CEO John Treacy explaining the details will be revealed soon.