More than 1,900 athletes were sanctioned for doping in '15, new WADA figures show. The 1,929 punishments for failed drug tests were an increase of 14% on the previous year, when 1,693 doping offenses were carried out. WADA said that "increased focus on investigations, intelligence gathering and whistleblowing are behind the rise." The figures also show Russian athletes had the most anti-doping rule violations in '15, with 176. The sport with the most sanctions was bodybuilding, with 270 (BBC, 4/4).
Major League Baseball reported "a record number of 259 foreign players" were on opening day rosters. The foreign players make up 29.8% of the league's 868 players. Those players are from 19 different countries. The previous record for the percentage of foreign-born players was 29.2% in '05. MLB began releasing this data in '95. The Dominican Republic has the most players on MLB rosters with 93, followed by Venezuela with 77, Cuba with 23 and Puerto Rico with 16 (KOREA TIMES, 4/4).
World Wrestling Entertainment announced it will be recruiting talent from the Middle East as part of its "initiative to recruit new talent from around the world" to train in Orlando, Florida. WWE COO Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, said that in recent years, the WWE's talent recruitment has "gone global," bringing in performers from 22 different countries. He said that the WWE is "recruiting globally in a way they have never done before" (ARAB NEWS, 4/4).
