Patterns of PED Test Sanctions in Professional Sports– Baseline and Implications for Research

Abstract

This paper establishes an empirical ground for the exploration of PEDs in professional sport, and the research implications. We use athlete level testing and sanctions data of 70 sports disciplines between 2001 and 2012, conducted by USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency), and examine the sport specific effects, calendar year effects and career stage effects on the USADA sanctions rate – both in univariate studies as well as in multivariate Cox proportional hazards regressions. We find that certain sports such as cycling, weightlifting and track & field do have significant and positive effect on the USADA sanction rate. On the other hand, many seemingly lower and higher than average sanctions rate, like for soccer and basketball are not statistically significant, that is they don’t move the baseline hazard rate up or down. There is a distinct inverted U relationship between career stage and sanctions rate, with a kink to a much higher sanctions rate in the veteran years of an athlete’s career. Given these results, it becomes very important that we make careful study of the determinants and consequences of the use of PEDs in professional sport by athletes. This paper provides the empirical basis for the study of PEDs use by professional athletes, setting out important avenues for further empirical and theoretical research in the field.