The governing body of world athletics has suppressed a 2011 study, which showed that up to a third of the sport's top-flight competitors admitted to using banned performance-enhancing substances and techniques, according to a report from the UK's Sunday Times.
The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Ingenue in Germany, who were given access to athletes at the 2011 world championships in Daegu, South Korea, the newspaper said.
In confidential interviews, hundreds of athletes told researchers that they had broken anti-doping rules. The Sunday Times, which along with German broadcaster ARD obtained a copy of the study, reported its conclusion that 29 percent – 34 percent of the 1,800 competitors at the championships had violated anti-doping rules in the previous 12 months.
