Photo: NZ Olympics team
New Zealand's sports anti-doping programme has a new boss and the former dual international sportswoman believes it is "not realistic" to drug test every Olympian.
The Sport Integrity Commission chief executive officer Rebecca Rolls said the way New Zealand athletes were selected for pinnacle events meant the drug testing agency had to use strategy and risk work to determine who would be tested.
The commission took over New Zealand's anti-doping programme from Drug Free Sport New Zealand in July, on the eve of the Olympics.
Rebecca Rolls, Chief Executive Sport Integrity Commission. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2024 www.photosport.nz
A quarter of New Zealand Olympians were not drug tested at all this year before the Paris Olympics and less than half were tested frequently in the lead up to the 33rd Games according to data from the International Testing Agency (ITA).
By comparison nearly every athlete from countries that had previously been involved in doping scandals like Russia and Belarus (97 percent) were tested at least once and 98 percent of the China's team were tested.
Overall, close to 90 percent of athletes worldwide were tested ahead of the latest Olympics. New Zealand had the lowest level of testing of any of the top 25 medal-winning nations.
The International Testing Agency (ITA) table of drug testing ahead of the Paris Olympics. Photo: supplied
"The ideal scenario is that you test everybody but that's probably not realistic given the conditions we operate under," Rolls said.
The government pays for 1350 drug tests of athletes each year and Rolls said there was also an arrangement to test on behalf of other agencies - who paid for it - so in total they would be administering more than 2000 tests a year.
"We might never be able to test a massive number of athletes but what we do know is they've all been offered education and they've all been deterred."
A list of New Zealand's potential Olympians were submitted to the New Zealand Olympic Committee in December - a long list of approximately 900 athletes across all sports - this list was halved by June.
New Zealand ended up sending 195 athletes to the Paris Olympics.
"You've got that really small window where you've got more of an idea of who is going to be at the Olympic Games but you don't actually know so you've got to apply a little bit of strategy and risk work to figure out where you do put your resources.
"Simply put if you compare it to the US where they have a trial weekend leading into the Olympics they see who comes out of that and who qualifies then they test whereas we've got to keep our options open in terms of who to call on."
Part of New Zealand's strategy revolved around targeting sports.
"We implement a programme which prioritises the most at-risk sports of doping in New Zealand and that criteria can be things like the profile, financial benefit, history of the sport that kind of thing and we work closely with sports to ensure that the ones competing internationally are educated.
"That prevention strategy is a really key pillar of our work so we're really confident that everyone who went to the Olympics or who is going to the Olympics has had the opportunity for education and we know that 95 percent of them took us up on that opportunity."
Photo: 123RF
New Zealand's testing of elite athletes came under scrutiny from the Athletics Integrity Unit when the global pandemic was blamed for a drop in tests ahead of the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Rolls said work was done with the AIU to improve testing numbers which she said had exceeded targets in the years following.
New Zealand's anti-doping programme was a significant contributor to how the country was seen on the global sports stage, the former international footballer and cricketer said.
"Traditionally New Zealand's got a really good reputation we're one of the highest in the transparency international anti-corruption index and that extends to sport as well but our strategy is really solid and has led to that good reputation so I think that is a result of the work we've been doing and we'll keep striving to make sure that athletes have got everything they need to stay clean.
"The change to the Sport Integrity Commission doesn't change the anti-doping approach so even if test numbers are lower [compared to other countries] education and deterrence is higher so we will keep challenging ourselves to be better in that space."
The public will be able to offer feedback on New Zealand's sports anti-doping rules later this month.
