The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is a
Monaco
Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...
-based organization founded by
World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
in April 2017 to combat
doping and address other forms of ethical misconduct in the
sport of athletics
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping and throwing. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, cross-country running, and racewalking.
...
. It operates independently from World Athletics to fulfill World Anti-Doping Code requirements. It is currently headed by Brett Clothier.
The organization collected more than 3800 samples from athletes in the first six months of 2021 in advance of the
2020 Summer Olympics
The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
. In 2023, AIU announced new efforts to establish a "blood steroid passport" to better detect the presence of steroids, more commonly used in sprinting and throwing events, through
blood serum
Serum () is the fluid and solvent component of blood which does not play a role in clotting. It may be defined as blood plasma without the clotting factors, or as blood with all cells and clotting factors removed. Serum contains all proteins ex ...
and endocrine testing.
AIU argues that the number of doping bans in athletics indicates that other sports are not robustly testing athletes.
Testing and Disciplinary Process
AIU conducts in-competition and out-of-competition blood and urine testing of athletes. Athletes in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) must meet whereabouts requirements to facilitate random testing. Athletes may be tested by AIU, the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
, or national anti-doping organizations. AIU has cited a preference for testing by private labs over national organizations due to potential bias in favor of athletes. Use of substances on the WADA Prohibited List without a
Therapeutic Use Exemption, abnormalities in the
Athlete Biological Passport, whereabouts failures, test tampering, and other doping rules violations may result in disciplinary measures.
The AIU disciplinary process includes provisional suspensions in force, pending first instance cases, and first instance decisions. Charges are brought by the AIU before the international, 47-member Disciplinary Tribunal to issue a first instance decision. These decisions may be appealed to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; , TAS) is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its courts are located in New York City, Sy ...
(CAS) by the athlete, anti-doping agency, or World Athletics. Appeals to CAS by athletes have rarely been upheld and appeals by World Athletics are generally upheld. However, World Athletics' 2023 appeals to CAS arguing that
Tobi Amusan and
Norah Jeruto committed anti-doping violations were dismissed. AIU maintains a list of individuals currently ineligible to participate in the sport of athletics.
AIU categorizes national athletics federations into three groups based on doping risk and athlete success at the international level, with Category A reflecting the highest combined doping risk and success and Category C reflecting the lowest. Higher categories require stronger anti-doping measures from the national federations. As of 2025, Category A includes the national athletics federations of Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, and Ukraine. Category B has 57 national federations and Category C has 150.
AIU may also sanction individuals for violations related to non-doping ethics violations. The only individuals currently banned by AIU for non-doping violations are two
Albanian Athletics Federation officials who manipulated competition results.
References
External links
Official website
{{Portal bar, Athletics
Athletics organizations
Sports organizations established in 2017