Evidence for the effectiveness of the performance passport within an intelligence‐based weightlifting anti‐doping programme

Anti-doping organisations are tasked with detecting, deterring and preventing doping in sport, and because biological testing consumes a large share of budgets, efficient resource allocation is essential. Enhancing effectiveness requires better insight into how well current methods identify athletes at risk. The International Testing Agency (ITA) recently introduced the Athlete Performance Passport (APP), which uses competition performance data to flag at-risk weightlifters for targeted testing. This study evaluates the APP alongside established approaches, including Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) recommendations and atypical findings from the steroidal module of the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP). Data from 1960 male and 1583 female athletes were analysed, identifying 175 individuals (109 male and 66 female) who committed an Article 2.1 Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) between December 2009 and April 2025. The study assessed how effectively each method identified these athletes. Overall, the APP detected 34% of athletes who committed ADRVs during this period. Focusing on data since the steroidal passport's introduction in 2014, the APP identified 30% of ADRVs, outperforming APMU suspicious reports (17%) and atypical ABP steroidal profiles (10%). When combined, these methods identified 38% of ADRVs. These findings indicate that performance-based monitoring can strengthen anti-doping risk assessment and improve targeted testing strategies, particularly in sports with comprehensive competition data.