A Vernec

Athletes have a long history of using substances in an attempt to gain an advantage in sporting competitions. The ancient Greeks and Romans used herbs, fungi, poppy seeds and stimulants such as strychnine in order to boost performance.1 In the modern era, this practice continued mostly with the use of stimulants and narcotics. Sports federations took notice and in 1928 the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) became the first federation to prohibit the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), although there would be no testing in sport for another 40 years.2

Amphetamine use was involved in the deaths of cyclists Knud Jensen and Tommy Simpson in the 1960 Olympic Games and the 1967 Tour de France respectively: this spurred the development of the International Olympic Commissions (IOC) Medical Commission, which published the first IOC Prohibited List in 1967. This became the de facto Prohibited List for Olympic Sport Federations. The ‘Festina affair’ (1998 Tour de France), where a team trainer's car was found to contain a panoply of PEDs, was the catalyst to create a new organisation to harmonise, coordinate and promote the fight against doping in sport in all its forms.3 The IOC convened the first World Conference in Doping in Sport in 1999, which resulted in the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

WADA is a unique, independent body representing equally sport and …