World Anti-Doping Agency
The World Anti-Doping Agency is an international organization co-founded by the governments of over 140 nations along with the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code, whose provisions are enforced by the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport. The aims of the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention and the United States Anti-Doping Agency are also closely aligned with those of WADA.
WADA is responsible for the World Anti-Doping Code, adopted by more than 650 sports organisations, including international sports federations, national anti-doping organisations, the IOC, and the International Paralympic Committee.
History
The World Anti-Doping Agency is a foundation created through a collective initiative led by the national governments of over 140 countries along with the International Olympic Committee. It was set up on 10 November 1999 in Lausanne, Switzerland, nearly a year after meetings that resulted in what was called the "Declaration of Lausanne", to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. Since 2002, the organisation's headquarters have been located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Lausanne office became the regional office for Europe. Other regional offices have been established in Africa, Asia/Oceania and Latin America. WADA is responsible for the World Anti-Doping Code, adopted by more than 650 sports organisations, including international sports federations, national anti-doping organisations, the IOC, and the International Paralympic Committee., its president is Witold Banka.Initially funded by the International Olympic Committee, WADA receives half of its budgetary requirements from them, with the other half coming from various national governments. Its governing bodies are also composed in equal parts by representatives from the sporting movement and governments of the world. The Agency's key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code.
McLaren Report
In 2016, Richard McLaren, an independent investigator for WADA, published a second part of his report revealing that more than 1,000 Russian athletes in over 30 sports had been involved in or benefited from state-sponsored doping from 2011 to 2015. As a result of the report, many Russian athletes were barred from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Despite widely accepted evidence, in 2018 WADA lifted its ban on Russian athletes. The reinstatement was strongly criticised by, among others, Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, and his lawyer, James Walden.Organisation and governance
WADA is an international organisation. It delegates work in individual countries to Regional and National Anti-Doping Organisations and mandates that these organisations are compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code. WADA also accredits around 30 laboratories to perform the required scientific analysis for doping control.The statutes of WADA and the World Anti-Doping Code mandate the Court of Arbitration for Sport's ultimate jurisdiction in deciding doping-related cases.
Foundation Board
The highest decision-making authority in WADA is the 38-member Foundation Board, which is comprised equally of IOC representatives and representatives of national governments. The Foundation Board appoints the agency's president. Most day-to-day management is delegated to the executive committee.Executive Committee
The executive committee, comprising 16 members, is delegated the Foundation Board to manage the day-to-day operations of the WADA. They are also responsible for all decisions not reserved by WADA's Statutes to the Board. Representatives are appointed by the IOC and governments. Many are current or former athletes. Witold Bańka is president, and Yang Yang is vice-president of the committee.List of presidents
Other committees
The Nominations Committee was created in September 2019 in order to ensure that the right people are recruited to serve in senior governance roles within the organisation. Independent Australian business executive Diane Smith-Gander was appointed as inaugural chair of the committee. Other independent members appointed are German human resources expert Regine Buettner and British business executive Simon Gillham. The sports movement nominee is Kelly Fairweather from South Africa, and Maja Makovec Brenčič of Slovenia is the public authority nominee.There also exist several sub-committees with narrower remits, including a Finance and Administration Committee and an Athlete Committee peopled by athletes.
World Anti-Doping Code
The World Anti-Doping Code is a document published by WADA that approximately 700 sports organisations across the world are signatories to. The code "harmonizes anti-doping policies, rules, and regulations within sport organisations and among public authorities" for the purpose of "protect the athletes' fundamental right to participate in doping-free sport". The code is supplemented by eight international standards published by WADA covering the topics of prohibited substances, testing and investigations, laboratories, Therapeutic Use Exemptions, protection of privacy and personal information, code compliance by signatories, education, and results management. The most recent version of the code took effect on 1 January 2021.In 2004, the World Anti-Doping Code was implemented by sports organisations prior to the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. In November 2007, more than 600 sports organisations unanimously adopted a revised Code at the Third World Conference on Doping in Sport, to take effect on 1 January 2009.
In 2013, further amendments to the Code were approved, doubling the sanction for a first offence where intentional doping is established, but allowing for more lenient sanctions for inadvertent rule violations or for athletes co-operating with anti-doping agencies. The updated code came into effect on 1 January 2015.
On 16 November 2017, WADA's Foundation Board initiated the 2021 Code Review Process, which also involved simultaneous review of the International Standards. During this time, stakeholders had multiple opportunities to contribute and make recommendations on how to further strengthen the global anti-doping program. Following the review process, stakeholders were invited to intervene publicly on the proposed Code and Standards during the Agency's Fifth World Conference on Doping in Sport in Katowice, Poland – an opportunity which was taken up by over 70 stakeholder organisations – before the Code and the full suite of Standards were approved by the Foundation Board and executive committee respectively.
Whereabouts rule
The anti-doping code revised the whereabouts system in place since 2004, under which, as of 2014, athletes are required to select one hour per day, seven days a week to be available for no-notice drugs tests.This was unsuccessfully challenged at law in 2009 by Sporta, the Belgian sports union, arguing that the system violated article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights; and by FIFPro, the international umbrella group of football players' unions, basing its case on data protection and employment law.
A significant number of sports organisations, governments, athletes, and other individuals and organisations have expressed support for the "whereabouts" requirements. The International Association of Athletics Federations and UK Sport are two of the most vocal supporters of this rule. Both FIFA and UEFA have criticised the system, citing privacy concerns, as has the BCCI.
WADA has published a Q&A explaining the rationale for the change.
Controversies
Statistical validity of tests
Professor Donald A. Berry has said that the closed systems used by anti-doping agencies do not allow statistical validation of the tests. This argument was seconded by an accompanying editorial in the journal Nature. The anti-doping community and scientists familiar with anti-doping work rejected these arguments. On 30 October 2008, Nature published a letter to the editor from WADA countering Berry's article. There has been at least one case where the development of statistical decision limit used by WADA in HGH use testing was found invalid by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.Chinese doping allegations and subsequent conflict with USADA
In 2018, a case containing samples from an anti-doping test, but not the vials themselves, was smashed by the security guards of Chinese swimmer Sun Yang. In justification, the Doping Control Assistant in charge of the testing mission was later criticised by Sun Yang, Chinese media, journalists, and scholars for not following the proper protocols. Sun said the DCA in question lacked proper identification, a situation that he said had happened previously with the same assistant. FINA's Doping Panel issued Sun with a warning but imposed no penalty. WADA appealed the FINA decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A three-member CAS panel found Sun guilty of refusing to co-operate with sample testers and banned him from competitive swimming until February 2028.Sometime in 2020, the WADA Intelligence and Investigations Department produced a report for senior officials based on Chinese doctor Xue Yinxian's allegations of state-sponsored doping after interviewing her in more detail. Although the investigation resulted in China being placed on a special watchlist for closer scrutiny, the I&I were only notified of the positive tests of the Chinese swimming team that occurred later in 2020, by another anti-doping agency in 2021.
On 20 April 2024, The New York Times and ARD revealed that 23 members of the Chinese swimming team tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug called trimetazidine seven months prior to the start of the 2020 Summer Games. WADA concluded there was no evidence of intentional doping and no sanctions were issued against the athletes, who were allowed to participate in the games with some of the swimmers winning medals. Following the publication of the report, Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, accused the WADA and the China Anti-Doping Agency of covering up doping by Chinese swimmers. In response, WADA sued Tygart for libel and in July 2024 filed an ethics complaint against Rahul Gupta, though both cases were dropped in early 2025.
WADA stated that the amount detected was too low to enhance performance, and CHINADA, who had reported the results to WADA and FINA, blamed them on contamination from a hotel kitchen, a rationale that potentially exempts findings from being made public. WADA released a statement, explaining that " was not possible for WADA scientists or investigators to conduct their enquiries on the ground in China given the extreme restrictions in place due to a COVID-related lockdown. WADA ultimately concluded that it was not in a position to disprove the possibility that contamination was the source of TMZ and it was compatible with the analytical data in the file." World Aquatics's investigation agreed with WADA. The New York Times subsequently obtained a copy of CHINADA and the Ministry of Public Security's research, with experts characterizing explanations as being based on simplistic human trials that did not prove how the contamination occurred.
After the story was leaked, WADA was criticised by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and athletes for not being transparent about the findings and keeping "clean athletes in the dark". WADA's choice of Swiss attorney Eric Cottier to lead an investigation into the matter also drew criticism because he was hand-picked by the agency. Experts interviewed by The New York Times said trace amounts of TMZ can be detected near the end of a doping excretion period but could not rule out contamination either.
WADA was also accused of having a double-standard as Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for TMZ and used the same excuse, but was subsequently banned for four years. WADA said, based on non-published information and pharmacokinetics, that contamination would not have been possible in Valieva's case. In the case of the Chinese swimmers, that no international competition was occurring around the time of the positive tests, only athletes who stayed at one of the hotels tested positive, and some individuals alternated between positive and negative results all point to contamination, not doping.
In May 2024, WADA announced that it held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the positive test results of the Chinese swimmers. WADA said it asked USADA to produce the whistleblowers alleging doping by the Chinese but has received no response, adding that American athletes had "some of the most elaborate and surprising contamination scenarios" in the past. USADA in response criticised WADA for attacking the messenger and its lack of transparency. The United States has threatened to stop funding WADA and called the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the United States Department of Justice to look into the matter.
Eleven of the 23 swimmers involved in the controversy were named to the 2024 Chinese Olympic swimming team. In June 2024, US Olympic swimmers Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt criticized the WADA in a Congressional hearing. In July, the International Olympic Committee accepted Salt Lake City's bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympics under the condition that the contract could be terminated "in cases where the supreme authority of the WADA in the fight against doping is not fully respected or if the application of the world antidoping code is hindered or undermined." NPR described the move as an attempt to crush the ongoing DOJ investigation in the United States. The agreement was signed off by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and Salt Lake City officials but criticized by USADA. In response, U.S. lawmakers proposed a bill to give the Office of National Drug Control Policy permanent authority to withhold U.S. funding for WADA if it deems WADA's anti-doping actions sub-standard. British swimmer Adam Peaty, who competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics, also expressed dissatisfaction with the World Anti-Doping Agency's efforts to combat cheating in sports. The U.S. held back its 2024 funding for WADA.
On July 9, Eric Cottier, a Swiss prosecutor appointed by WADA to investigate the case of the 23 Chinese swimmers, concluded in his interim report that WADA did not mishandle the doping case or show bias. He stated, "There is nothing in the file... to suggest that WADA showed favouritism or in any way favoured the 23 swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine between January 1 and 3, 2021." He also found no evidence of "interference or meddling" from within WADA, CHINADA, or Chinese authorities, and said WADA's decision not to appeal CHINADA's findings was "reasonable, both from the point of view of the facts and the applicable rules."
In September 2024, Cottier released his final report, which acknowledged that some procedural rules had not been followed by CHINADA, but concluded that this did not undermine the "acceptance of the contamination hypothesis." The report reaffirmed that WADA had not shown favouritism, although it recommended improvements to WADA's administrative processes. The findings were largely consistent with those of Cottier's July interim report. In November 2024, Sportschau reported that 18 national anti-doping agencies have sent a joint letter to WADA for answers to why Cottier was appointed to lead an investigation with such a narrow scope, while the chairman of Germany's Sports Committee in the Bundestag appears to have fabricated a letter of support for WADA.