The largest ever survey of doping practices among recreational athletes in Europe has revealed that the use of banned substances is lower than previously thought. The results were presented at the fifth annual meeting of the FORUM for Anti-Doping in Recreational Sport FAIR+, which is co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program. The survey was conducted in the first half of 2021.
The European Commission recognizes the importance of combating doping in recreational sport and wants to counteract the risk of doping in recreational sport becoming a public health problem. The FAIR+ project aims to provide a better insight into the prevalence of doping in recreational sport in Europe. The objectives are to investigate the use of doping in recreational sports through a random survey, to develop various recommendations for the implementation of effective educational campaigns for coaches, trainers and instructors in recreational sports and to organize the annual Forum on Anti-Doping in Recreational Sports.
Over 7000 valid, anonymous responses were collected from mainly 8 European countries and the distribution by age, gender and sport type shows that the sample is well representative of the profile of adult recreational athletes. Respondents indicated more than 200 different sports, with the most popular sports in descending order being: Jogging/Running, Cycling, Swimming, Fitness and Football. The results show that 91% of athletes did not use a banned substance to improve their performance, while less than 0.5% responded positively that they used a banned substance. The remaining 8.5% could not be fully verified.
One of the most notable findings was that over 10% of respondents were taking ‘over-the-counter’ medication to improve their performance. These medications included painkillers, mood enhancers, caffeine and other stimulant drugs. The data from the survey is currently still being analyzed; further results and conclusions are to be published in a scientific paper in 2022. The 6th and final FORUM will take place in Brussels in November 2022, where a further summary and guidelines for effective anti-doping education programs for coaches, trainers and instructors in recreational sports will be provided.
