Dr Mats Garle is head of the Doping Control Laboratory at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. It is one of 33 laboratories worldwide accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The ten laboratory staff at Karolinska conduct 5000 tests each year. Around 3000 of these tests are done on Swedish nationals, 60 percent of these tests being in out-of-competition testing. The laboratory also conducts research into new methods and procedures for the detection of banned substances by athletes.

Blood and testosterone

Dr Garle and his team have also been working with colleagues at Uppsala University, 70km north of Stockholm, on a new method for the detection of blood doping. Dr Garle says: “We are now working to validate our results. Hopefully this will reduce blood doping detection from the current three days to 40 minutes. This will dramatically increase the number of tests one can conduct.”

According to Dr Garle, Sweden holds the lead in some anti-doping research fields. “Regarding blood doping and testosterone misuse, Sweden holds a leading position,” Dr Garle says. “At the same time one must remember that there are a number of laboratories around the world conducting all kinds of research at various levels.”

Dr Christer Malm is based at Umeå University in northern Sweden. A former elite runner, he is conducting a two-part survey into anti-doping methods. One part involves the use of proteomics, the study of the structure and function of proteins. This is a unique approach to detection.

Dr Malm's research involves both muscle proteins and blood doping. Photo: Private

“My research is focused on muscle proteins,” Dr Malm says. “I am trying to find a means to test as many muscle proteins at a time, find any anomalies, and explain these. The other part of my research involves the detection of blood doping and I am in the process of submitting patents on this part of the research.”

A battle amidst challenges

Despite some of the pioneering research taking place, there is an ongoing struggle for research funding in Sweden. Dr Malm’s project would not be possible without WADA assistance.

“There is not much money circulating,” Dr Malm says. “It is impossible to get money for research.” Professor Arne Ljunqvist, Chairman of WADA’s Health, Medical and Research Committee, also suggested there is “not enough money” and pointed to a complete lack of any research into anti-doping methods before the formation of WADA in 1999.

The next challenge for anti-doping agencies and researchers is genetic doping. It is unclear how prospective gene therapy might be abused by athletes in the future and how this abuse might be discovered. Dr Garle speculated that more and more athletes will be subjected to DNA analysis but he was uncertain what the benefits of gene tampering might be.

“It is not easy to change or correct a gene but we might in the future build up a ‘passport’ for athletes that includes not only their blood profile but a DNA profile as well,” Dr Garle says. “This profile will set a markers and parameters for every athlete.”

Unfair and dangerous

Professor Ljungqvist has played an important role in research and governance of doping in sport since the late 1970s. A former Olympian and a medical doctor, he became a member of the then International Athletics Federation (later the IAAF) in 1976.

Ljungqvist is proud of the example being set by Swedish athletes today. “The Swedes who succeed are living proof that you do not need drugs,” he says. “I would say that today in Sweden the issue of drugs is not on the agenda. Decades of campaigning among parents, coaches and athletes has sent the message that using drugs is not fair and it is dangerous.”

Although Sweden is not immune to doping it has not suffered any high-profile cases in the last few years. It seems that the current generation has reaped the benefits of a sporting culture that cleaned up shop in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Together with a society that is “anti-drug” in general means that while a drug scandal in Swedish sport is not impossible, it remains unlikely.

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The author alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.

Classification: A237EN

Nicholas Claude

Nicholas Claude is a freelance writer and communications consultant living in Stockholm. The closest he has come to doping is drinking a vodka with beer on a Saturday night. Definitely not performance-enhancing.