What is World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)?

About World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA):

• WADA was established in 1999 as an international independent agency to lead a collaborative worldwide movement for doping-free sport.
• WADA’s governance and funding are based on an equal partnership between the sport movement and governments of the world.
• WADA’s primary role is to develop, harmonize, and coordinate anti-doping rules and policies across all sports and countries. 
• Its key activities include scientific research, education, the development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring the World Anti-Doping Code (Code), the document harmonizing anti-doping policies in all sports and all countries.
• Formation:
  • After the events that shook the world of cycling in the summer of 1998, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to convene a World Conference on Doping.
  • The First World Conference on Doping in Sport held in Lausanne, Switzerland, on February 2-4, 1999, produced the Lausanne Declaration on Doping in Sport.
  • It provided for the creation of an independent international anti-doping agency to be operational for the Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney in 2000.
  • Pursuant to the terms of the Lausanne Declaration, the WADA was established on November 10, 1999, in Lausanne to promote and coordinate the fight against doping in sport internationally. 
• WADA is a Swiss private law, not-for-profit foundation.
• Its seat is in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its headquarters are in Montreal, Canada.
• Governance Structure:
  • A 42-member Foundation Board (Board), the agency’s highest policy-making body, is jointly composed of representatives of the Olympic Movement (the IOC, National Olympic Committees, International Sports Federations, and athletes) and representatives of governments from all five continents.
  • A 16-member Executive Committee (ExCo), to which the Board delegates the management and running of the agency, including the performance of all its activities and the administration of its assets.

Q1: What is doping?

Doping is the act of consuming artificial and often illegal substances to gain an advantage over others in sporting competitions (anabolic steroids, human growth hormones, stimulants and diuretics for example).

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