The sad thing about 2016 is that doping stories have emerged with such profusion that unless the breaking news is of Sharapova-esque proportions, it barely raises an eyebrow. The latest revelations have been met with a surprising level of indifference but should, in fact, be met with some considerable alarm. Earlier this week, it emerged that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had suspended the accreditation of the drug-testing laboratory in Bloemfontein, South Africa. This lab was ordered to immediately stop analysing athletes’ blood and urine samples as it was reportedly coming out with false positive and negative results. In itself, this is not particularly startling news but when you consider that Bloemfontein was the fourth anti-doping lab to have its accreditation suspended in just a matter of weeks, it becomes far more troublesome.

Two weeks ago, the Beijing national anti-doping laboratory was suspended for failing to comply with international standards. It reportedly classified two doping tests as negative when they were, in fact, positive. The week previously, Moscow’s drug-testing lab had its accreditation revoked after being suspended since last November- it had been included in WADA’s independent commission report published that month and it accused the Russian lab of intentionally and maliciously destroying more than 1400 samples after receiving notification from WADA to preserve target samples.

Furthermore, the drug-testing lab in Lisbon also had its WADA accreditation suspended that same week as Moscow had theirs revoked. This leaves no WADA accredited drug-testing lab in China, Russia or the entire continent of Africa and the suspension of Beijing and Bloemfontein leaves just 31 laboratories world-wide accredited by WADA to analyse samples.

Four simultaneous laboratory suspensions is thought to be unprecedented and is likely to raise serious questions about the effectiveness of drug-testing in the lead-up to the Rio Olympic Games, the Opening Ceremony of which is just 91 days away. This summer’s Olympics is likely to be viewed more sceptically than any other previous Games. It remains to be seen if the Russian athletics team is readmitted but even if their suspension is not lifted, there are plenty of other countries to soak up the cynicism. There have been questions raised about China and Kenya, as well as a raft of individual athletes who have suspicions around them- some justifiably, others less so.

It is not the drug-testing at the Olympic Games itself which is really the worry. Any doper worth their salt will not have any illegal substance in their system when they line up for their event in Rio. To paraphrase the American cyclist, Tyler Hamilton; if you fail an in-competition anti-doping test, you’re failing two tests- an drug test and an IQ test. The fact remains that the majority of drugs benefit an athlete the most when out-of-competition; to reduce performance-enhancing drugs to their most basic level, they allow the individual to train harder and recover quicker. It is out-of-competition that these benefits are most keenly felt and so it is out-of-competition testing in the run-up to Rio which will be most valuable and act as the greatest deterrent to dopers.

British athletes heading for Brazil will be tested multiple times in the weeks and months before the Opening Ceremony on the 5th August- to illustrate just how tight UK Anti-Doping’s programme is, I was tested three times in five weeks pre-London 2012. Will British athletes in Rio have much, if any confidence that their competitors will have faced such stringent testing regimes? Almost certainly not. WADA has asserted that tests which would have been analysed at the Moscow, Beijing, Lisbon and Bloemfontein labs will be sent elsewhere but the fact remains that logistically, it is now considerably harder, as well as more expensive, to test athletes’ samples from these areas. As has been widely reported, WADA has a limited budget and resources and so these suspensions will do nothing for the anti-doping agency’s accounts.

But perhaps the most important point is that these suspensions of accreditations are yet another blow to the perception of sport; they raise further doubts in the public eye and reignite suspicions that drugs cheats are not being caught. Some of the laboratory suspensions may be due to malicious covering-up of positive tests while other suspensions may be due to inadvertent malpractice; either way, the message to the public is that dopers are not being caught as effectively as they could be. The next year-or-so is going to be huge for the future of sport- the general feeling is that it is riddled with drugs cheats, however unfair and inaccurate that may be. The suspension of labs by WADA may be a good thing in that ineffective labs are no longer being used to analyse samples but having four labs struck off the list in such quick succession perpetuates the belief that cheats are getting away with murder. Standards must be raised, and quickly, because the climb back to sport being a trustworthy entity is getting steeper and steeper.