THE ANTI-DOPING WAR’S KEY FIGURES

The use of doping in sports has a long and contentious history. Despite the fact that several organizations enacted doping bans prior to World War II, public scrutiny of the issue remained relatively light until the second half of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1960s, officials enacted a slew of regulations since it was noticed as serious problem because it not only jeopardizes the sport’s integrity but also jeopardizes the health of athletes.

The fight against doping in sports, as we know it today, began in 1961 with the establishment of the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission. The International Olympic Committee formally issues first banned list of drugs for the 1968 Summer Olympics.

With the rise of professionalism in many previously amateur sports, doping became a more serious problem.

WADA was established in 1999 in response to a major doping scandal that impacted the cycling world in 1998.

The International Olympic Committee convened the First World Conference on Doping in Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, in February 1999, bringing together all parties involved in the anti-doping fight. The Conference resulted in the Lausanne Declaration on Doping in Sport, which called for the establishment of an independent international anti-doping agency to be operational in time for the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.

WADA was founded on November 10, 1999, to protect athletes, promote the values of clean sport, and preserve the spirit of sport on a global scale. WADA was established as a foundation on the initiative of the International Olympic Committee, with the support and participation of intergovernmental organizations, governments, public authorities, and other public and private bodies combating doping in sport. To this day, the Agency is made up of and funded by the global sports movement and governments.

WADA updates the Prohibited List every year to reflect any scientific breakthroughs on newly identified substances that are deemed to be drug cheats.

The International Olympic Committee wanted to reduce the possibility of a conflict of interest arising from a national anti-doping agency testing its own country’s athletes, or from an international sport federation or sporting event organizer being responsible for both sanctioning athletes and promoting the sport or event.

That’s how the International Testing Agency come to be, that executes anti-doping programs for international sports federations, major event organizers, and any other anti-doping organization in need of assistance. The World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee co-founded the organization in 2018 to promote independence, expertise, and transparency in the global battle against doping.

Doping is frequently associated with a lack of education. WADA’s Anti-Doping Education and Learning platform (ADEL) was developed to provide education and learning opportunities for the anti-doping community around the world, including athletes, coaches, parents, medical professionals, and others.