Olympic drug testing could be a lot better, mostly because it is too infrequent.
The biological passport (used in pro cycling) is about as good as it gets at the moment. There are plenty of ways around that (eg, bloodbags & microdosing EPO) but it has been moderately successful in cleaning up the worst abuses in cycling.
The real story is the lack of drug testing in Soccer & Tennis.
WADA doesn't handle testing for any sport - it's all done by the national agencies.
But it gets complicated by the fact that any sport's governing body sets the rules for testing for approval by WADA, which are then administered by the national federations. But WADA has no real power, except to protest to CAS (the Court of Arbitration in Sport) if they don't like how a sport operates (eg [1]).
And yes, some national bodies are more vigorous than others. Famously, Lance Armstrong moved from Nice (in France) to Spain, where the testing was much more predictable and easy to avoid. Also, there were no criminal sanction for the use of performance enhancing drugs in Spain, whereas there were in France.
Thanks, I misunderstood WADA's exact behaviour at international contests.
Complicating the issue still further is that some tests will be carried out by sporting bodies directly, some by national sporting bodies and others by international sporting bodies. And then there are multi-sport bodies like the IOC who will also carry out tests.
In any case, the point is that some countries are more aggressive about testing out-of-competition than others. Depending on the sport, that can make an enormous difference in performance.
Drug testing is Soccer is roughly where it was in Cycling circa 1997.
Yes, there is testing but it only catches people who are stupid.
There is plenty of evidence of systematic doping in professional soccer. For example, 150 out of the 200 samples in the "Operation Puerto" performance-enhancing drugs case in Spain were not associated with Cycling[1], and it is pretty easy to find out what clubs the doctor (Fuentes) was associated with.
No one is publishing the allegations, because the Puerto evidence was destroyed (!!) and publishers are wary of the lawsuits that Lance Armstrong launched in the mid 2000's when allegations of his doping were first published[2]. The closest you'll get is stories like [3], which are careful to be non-specific.
But read a few forums and it's pretty clear that many clubs have well funded, systematic doping programs.
Personally, I think it's likely professional tennis is just as bad - and their testing is even worse than soccer.
The biological passport (used in pro cycling) is about as good as it gets at the moment. There are plenty of ways around that (eg, bloodbags & microdosing EPO) but it has been moderately successful in cleaning up the worst abuses in cycling.
The real story is the lack of drug testing in Soccer & Tennis.