We’ve long been used to a steady trickle of positive doping tests coming out of the world of athletics.
A positive test result here, a missed test there, is absolutely nothing new.
But the tsunami of positive doping tests that’s been coming out of Kenya in recent years, and particularly recent months, is ravaging the sport, to such an extent that it will take years to repair.
The list of Kenyan athletes who are currently serving a doping ban is astonishingly lengthy - almost 150 - and it’s getting longer by the day.
For decades, Kenya has been an athletics powerhouse. Some of the sport’s true greats hail from this East African nation, including Eliud Kipchoge, David Rudisha, Kip Keino and Brigid Kosgei, plus many more.
The pattern over recent years has been that, every few weeks, and occasionally every few days, it’s announced that a Kenyan athlete has committed an anti-doping violation.
The most significant positive test result was announced last month, with the revelation of a suspension for Ruth Chepngetich.
Her positive doping result sent shockwaves through athletics and has caused a significant dent in any trust that’s left in the sport.
In October of last year, at the Chicago Marathon, Chepngetich produced one of the most impressive performances the world of athletics has ever seen.
The 30-year-old obliterated the women’s marathon world record, running 2 hours 9 minutes 56 seconds, breaking the previous world record by almost two minutes and becoming the first female to break the 2:10 barrier for the distance.
It was a remarkable run, particularly as it came from an athlete who has shown little potential to achieve such a remarkable time.
From literally the minute Chepngetich crossed the finish line in Chicago, the scepticism in her performance was overwhelming, and the allegations were flying. Surely, observers said, Chepngetich’s performance wasn’t legitimate. That she had slashed four minutes from her own previous best also fuelled the doubt - improvements of that magnitude just don’t happen in elite sport.
The doubt over the legitimacy of Chepngetich’s performance was entirely understandable and, as it’s turned out, completely justified.
Last month, it was announced that she had been suspended for an anti-doping violation. She tested positive for the banned substance, a diuretic called hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), which was detected in a sample collected from her in March. Her suspension was announced last month.
What was so jarring about Chepngetich’s positive doping test was that yes, it was shocking, but it wasn’t, in any way surprising.
Firstly, her performance seemed too good to be true and when that’s the case, more often than not, it is too good to be true. And secondly, the constant stream of positive test results coming out of Kenya means every single Kenyan athlete is looked upon with a degree of suspicion. And, all too often, that suspicion turns out to be justified.
Since Chepngetich’s positive test just a few weeks ago, a further six Kenyan athletes have been handed suspensions for doping offences.
While taking performance-enhancing drugs is far from restricted to athletics athletes, or far from restricted to Kenyan athletes, what is unusual is just how many high-profile Kenyan individuals have been suspended for testing positive. In contrast, all other countries who have a significant number of suspended athletes have attracted far less scrutiny due to the suspended athletes being, in the main, considerably less successful than their Kenyan counterparts.
The number of high-profile Kenyan athletes who have violated anti-doping rules is truly astonishing; from former marathon world record holder Wilson Kipsang to ex-half marathon world record holder Abraham Kiptum to Rio 2016 Olympic marathon gold medallist Jemima Sumgong to London Marathon winner Daniel Wanjiru to world 1500m gold medallists Asbel Kiprop and Elijah Manangoi, the roster of banned names parades some quite astonishing quality.
And when added to the dozens of lower-profile athletes who’ve also been suspended for anti-doping violations, the total number of suspended Kenyan athletes is extremely alarming.
Such numbers points to a significant problem, and it’s a problem that isn’t only tainting Kenyan athletics, it’s tainting the entire sport and every athlete involved in it.
This has been going on for a number of years now - as far back as 2022, the Kenyan cabinet secretary for Youth Affairs, Sports and the Arts, claimed his country was in a “serious war against doping” - and while there’s suggestions things have improved somewhat, there can be little doubt that the Kenyan doping epidemic is still ravaging the sport.
A recent New York Times expose of the Kenyan doping problem highlighted the high levels of poverty within the country, which results in the risks of doping being comfortably outweighed by the potential benefits of doping, one of which is earning significant financial rewards.
To use the moral argument to discourage doping - that doping goes against the spirit of sport - is a difficult battle to win when an individual could potentially pull themselves and their family out of poverty if their doping gets the desired results.
An outright ban for Kenya is the obvious solution, but those at the helm of World Athletics seem unlikely to make such a move. There is a belief within the global governing body that, unlike Russia which was issued with a complete ban just over a decade ago, Kenya’s doping isn’t state-run as it was in Russia. It may be a mere detail, but it is an important detail.
So without an outright ban, the only path forward is the one that continues to try and fight the doping problem, and catch the doping cheats.
Certainly, while the swathe of positive doping tests is a bad look for athletics, it does suggest that fewer athletes are getting away with it than in the past.
Recently, the President of World Athletics, Seb Coe, said “I believe in the future, we will have a drug-free sport.” I’m not, I’m sorry to say, nearly as optimistic. But we definitely need a reduction in drug cheats because if things continue in this current vein, with Kenyans bulldozing the reputation of athletics, pretty soon there’ll be no sport to speak of.
