World Anti-Doping Agency. What is WADA and how it works

November 17, 2011

The development of sports in recent decades has given rise to another significant problem, without an effective solution of which to achieve fair competition in competitive activity does not seem possible. This problem lies in the use of doping drugs and methods, which, on the one hand, have a negative impact on the body of an athlete, on the other hand, cast doubt on honesty and fairness. wrestling, and, therefore, the result of the competition.

As shown by many years of competitive practice, to solve the problem of doping by the efforts of individual sports organizations and federations are not allowed; here we need the combined efforts of the entire international sports community, we need a legal framework and special control bodies with certain rights and powers.

To substantiate this position, let us turn to the facts. Doping, as a means of increasing the power and endurance of the body, has been used by athletes since ancient times. Ancient Greek athletes are known to have used special food supplements and potions to stimulate muscle and brain activity. Strychnine, caffeine, cocaine, and alcohol were often used by cyclists and marathon runners in the 19th century. Thomas Hicks ran to victory on Olympic marathon 1904 in St. Louis, taking a mixture of raw eggs, strychnine and brandy along the track. During the same period, the use of doping for racehorses. In an effort to win at any cost and get large sums on the racetrack sweepstakes, horse owners and jockeys added stimulants to the food and blood of horses, trying to increase their running speed.

By the beginning of the 1920s. doping began to spread rapidly among athletes, and even then, individual sports authorities began to realize the need for legal regulation of this process. In 1928, the International Amateur Federation (IAAF) first launched an initiative to ban doping in the form of stimulants. Many federations followed the example of the IAAF, but these restrictions proved to be unproductive due to the fact that a mechanism for sampling and doping control was not developed.

In the meantime, the problem of doping in the sports environment has become more and more acute. In the 1930s, the first artificial hormones were synthesized, which made it possible to control the metabolism in the human body. Some athletes and coaches began to experiment with hormones, trying to increase their muscle mass, strength and endurance. The imperfection of the first drugs and methods led to the fact that many athletes who used doping undermined their health. It didn't go without deaths. So, at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Danish cyclist Nud Enemark Jensen died right on the track, in whose blood traces of amphetamine were later found. Seven years later, the tragic fatality on the track was repeated. This time the victim of doping was cyclist Tom Simpson, who died during the Tour de France.

The severe consequences of doping have intensified the work of many reputable sports organizations to develop tests and doping control procedures. In 1966, the Cyclists' Union (UCI) and the International Football Federation (FIFA) were the first among other federations to implement doping control at world championships. And the following year, 1967, the International Olympic Committee forms the Medical Commission and publishes the first list of prohibited drugs. For the first time, doping control began to be carried out at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble and the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968.

Most International sports federations began doping control by the 1970s. The use of anabolic steroids was becoming more and more common by that time, since there were no methods for reliably detecting these substances in the body of athletes. A reliable method for the identification of steroids was presented to the IOC in 1974, and in 1976 the IOC added anabolic steroids to the banned drugs list. It caused a wave high-profile scandals and disqualifications, as it turned out that many eminent athletes regularly used anabolic steroids. This was especially true for shot throwers and weightlifters. However, representatives of other sports did not stand aside.

The most famous case of steroid use concerns sprinter Ben Jonson, who won the 100-meter distance at the Seoul Olympics (1988) with a record time of 9.79 seconds. A sample taken from Johnson gave a positive result - stanozol, a drug belonging to the class of anabolic steroids, was found in the athlete's blood. As a result, Johnson was disqualified and stripped of his title.

As the fight against the use of anabolic steroids took on more and more scope, the search for possible doping began to move into a new direction. To increase the power of the body, athletes began to use transfusion, that is, transfusions of one's own blood with a high content of hemoglobin in it. Athletes have noticed that when training at high altitudes, in conditions of atmospheric oxygen deficiency, the body produces more hemoglobin, through which oxygen is transported. If you take away from an athlete a certain amount of blood with a high content of hemoglobin and introduce him immediately before the competition "enriched" blood, then the power of the body increases. The work to develop methods for detecting transfusions took several years. The IOC banned blood doping in 1986.

However, the inventors of doping did not lose heart. To increase hemoglobin in the blood, the drug erythropoietin was used, which could not be detected in the body by reliable methods for a long time. And despite the fact that erythropoietin was banned by the IOC in 1990, experts learned to reliably detect its presence by a combination of blood and urine tests only in 2000.

As can be seen from the above chronology and facts, the fight against doping in professional sports is like a game of cat and mouse, and in this game, manufacturers and users of doping are almost always one step ahead. The official authorities act as a catch-up party, and not always successfully. And there are a number of objective reasons for this:

  1. Doping is considered as an offense only in sports, in civil and criminal law this act is not such (with the exception of Italy. In 2016, V. Putin signed an amendment to the Law “On physical education and sports”, according to which persons who persuade athletes to doping are criminally liable). Accordingly, the world sports community needed to create and constantly improve its own legal framework in the field of doping, which would not contradict the general civil legislation of both individual states and international law;
  2. Carrying out constant doping control is a very expensive and technically complex business. Moreover, on the agenda today is the use of gene doping and nanotechnologies in sports, the testing of which can be very costly. Doping laboratories constantly require significant financial resources for Scientific research and maintenance of qualified personnel;
  3. Modern doping is quickly excreted from the body, so they can be detected only at certain short intervals (and methods such as electrical stimulation of the brain are generally impossible). To do this, inspectors need to: a) have access to athletes at all times; b) have their consent to take the sample; c) have appropriate operational personnel for this purpose with the necessary skills and knowledge, as some athletes use various falsifications and frauds;
  4. As practice has shown, even 100% proof of the presence of doping in the body of an athlete does not exclude conflicts and disputes. Athletes who have not passed doping control declare that they do not know anything about doping; they may have had illegal drugs added to their food or drinks by competitors, rivals or any third parties. In other words, to establish the truth, it is necessary to carry out investigative actions. And this is the prerogative of the competent authorities.

Thus, for the world sports community by the end of the 20th century it became obvious that without the creation of a single powerful organization with adequate resources and personnel, the fight against doping would be ineffective. Understanding this fact led to the creation on November 10, 1999 of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), headed by Richard Pound.

The main objectives of WADA are:

  • Conducting an unannounced out-of-competition doping control among athletes (by random or other sampling);
  • Monitoring compliance with the Anti-Doping Code by all parties that have acceded to it;
  • Funding for scientific research in the field of discovering new methods of doping;
  • Overseeing the implementation of anti-doping programs at major sporting events;
  • Training of athletes, coaches and sports managers according to specially designed anti-doping programs;
  • Creation of National Anti-Doping Agencies (NAPO).

The organizational and management structure of WADA includes the Board, the Executive Committee and three advisory committees (Committee on Ethics and Education, Committee on Administration and Finance, Committee on Research, Medicine and Health - see Fig. 1).

The day-to-day activities of WADA are managed by the Executive Committee (Executive Committee), which consists of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and 9 members. The Chairman of the Agency is elected for 3 years by secret ballot.

Working committees within WADA act as advisory bodies. They develop recommendations for the practical implementation of WADA programs. The Administrative and Financial Committee has 6 members and 2 observers, the Ethics and Education Committee - 12 members, the Research, Medicine and Health Committee - 33 members.

In the first two years of its existence, WADA received funding from the Olympic Movement in the amount of $25 million per year. Since 2002, WADA has been funded jointly by the IOC and government agencies interested in preventing the spread and use of doping. The WADA Board has a special five-year strategic plan, according to which, by 2005, half of the funds for WADA financing will be contributed by the governments of the countries concerned.

The Russian government also actively participates in the programs of the Anti-Doping Agency, which has decided to allocate the necessary amounts to finance WADA. The corresponding Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1 entitled "On the participation Russian Federation in the activities of the World Anti-Doping Agency” was signed on January 4, 2003. According to this resolution, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation is instructed, when forming the annual budget of the country, to provide for the section “International Activities” for the payment of contributions by the Russian Federation to the budget of WADA according to the scale of contributions established for the member states of the Council Europe.

As you can see, Russia is actively involved in the work to combat doping and promote the activities of WADA. Despite the economic difficulties experienced by the country as a whole and the physical culture and sports industry in particular, the Russian side is still seeking the necessary funds to finance WADA and create an all-Russian system of anti-doping research and control.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was established at the initiative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on November 10, 1999. The Lausanne Declaration, adopted at the First World Conference on Doping in Sport, became the legal basis. It was convened in February 1999 in connection with the doping scandal at the 1998 Tour de France.

The agency is headquartered in Montreal (Canada), with regional offices in Cape Town (South Africa), Tokyo (Japan), Lausanne (Switzerland) and Montevideo (Uruguay).

WADA conducts scientific research, implements educational programs, carries out accreditation of doping laboratories, approves international standards and monitors the implementation of the International Anti-Doping Code. It entered into force on 1 January 2004 and has been adopted by more than 660 organizations to date.

From 2000 to 2001, the IOC allocated $18.3 million to WADA. Since 2002, the agency has been funded in equal shares sports movement and the governments of the five Olympic continents. Europe provides 47.5% of the second part of the amount, America - 29%, Asia - 20.46%, Oceania - 2.54%, Africa - 0.5%.

The head of WADA is elected in turn from representatives of the IOC and countries. The current president is IOC Vice President Craig Reedy. WADA's highest decision-making body is the board. It consists of 38 members - 19 people each from the IOC and states. The most widely represented are Europe and America, with six and five members respectively. The structure of WADA also includes: an executive committee (six people each from the IOC and continents), five committees and seven expert groups.

Decisions made by the agency can be appealed to the Sports arbitration court(CAS). WADA also has the right to apply to CAS.

National Anti-Doping Organizations


The list of National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs) includes 139 agencies. According to WADA, decisions on the creation of these agencies can be made by governments, parliaments or National Olympic Committees.

The scope of the NADO's activities includes screening (collecting samples) of athletes in and out of competition, including foreign athletes, if the tournament is held in the country where the anti-doping organization is located. In addition, National Anti-Doping Organizations adjudicate anti-doping rule violations and promote the values ​​of WADA. WADA controls the implementation of the provisions of the World Anti-Doping Code, as well as the activities of these organizations. The WADA Board of Founders may suspend National Anti-Doping Organizations for non-compliance with the Code until the violations are corrected.

For example, on November 18, 2015, the anti-doping authorities of Russia (destruction of doping samples), Andorra, Israel (both - inconsistency between the provisions of the code and the anti-doping rules of the departments), Argentina, Bolivia and Ukraine (all - conducting tests in non-accredited laboratories). On January 5 and February 22, 2016, the Israeli and Argentine services were removed from the blacklist after the violations were corrected. In addition, the anti-doping committees of Spain, France, Brazil, Belgium, Greece and Mexico were placed under the "special control" of WADA.

WADA(World Anti-Doping Agency) World Anti- Doping Agency - WADA, fr. Agence mondiale anti-dopage - AMA) is an independent organization created with the support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

WADA was established on 10 November 1999 in Lausanne, Switzerland to coordinate the fight against doping in sport.

In 2001 WADA headquarters moved to Montreal, Canada.

The organization's current chairman is a former Australian finance minister John Fahey.

Initially, WADA received funding from the IOC, but now the IOC funds WADA only half. The rest of WADA's funding comes from governments around the world.

WADA's main document is World Anti-Doping Code, the latest edition came into force in 2009. The fight against doping is regulated by the so-called International Standards:

For testing, for laboratories, for therapeutic exceptions and the Prohibited List.

WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY - WADA(World Anti-Doping Agency - WADA).

The fight against doping in sport, whichIOC together with international sports federations led in the second half of the 20th century, did not bring serious results. On the contrary, during this period the list of prohibited drugs and methods has increased many times over.

The use of doping has penetrated into children's, youth and mass sports. Considering the difficulties and obstacles faced by the global anti-doping movement (and, consequently, the lack of effectiveness of the anti-doping control itself at the international and national levels.

supreme body WADA- board of founders. Of its 36 members, 18 represent the Olympic Movement (IOC, continental and national Olympic committees, international sports federations). The remaining 18 seats are provided to representatives of the governments of the participating countries.

Charter WADA allows this organization to actively influence the course of doping control at important competitions: to determine the sampling procedure, the list of prohibited drugs, standards for testing, accreditation of anti-doping laboratories, conducting research, information and educational programs.

In its activity WADA focuses on doping control, research, education, promotion of a worldwide anti-doping code and assistance in the development of relevant national laws.

Doping Control Procedure (according to WADA World Anti-Doping Agency) Doping Control Procedure

The following steps apply in all doping control procedures:

  1. Athlete's Choice

You may be selected to be tested at a competition, training camp, at your home, or any other location during the year with or without notice. Typically, an athlete is selected for in-competition testing as a result of a high place taken, or by random selection.

  1. Athlete Notice

You will always be notified of the personal doping control. The Control Officer (DCO) will notify you that you have been selected for control and will announce the request for a urine sample under control. You will also be informed of your rights and obligations regarding doping control, including the responsibility to remain within the designated area in full view of the control staff until the urine collection process is completed. Once you understand your rights and responsibilities, you will be required to sign a special doping control consent agreement.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is an independent international organization that fights against doping. WADA was established on 10 November 1999 at the initiative of International Olympic Committee (IOC). Initially, the headquarters of the organization was in the Swiss city of Lausanne, but two years later it was moved to Montreal, Canada.

Her main areas of work are research, education, promotion of honest behavior and monitoring of compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code. It is formed equally from the participants Olympic movement and representatives of government organizations. WADA staff are involved in conducting international competitions: carry out the collection and transportation of samples, are engaged in their study.

The motto of this large international organization: "Play fair" (PlayTrue). Employees of the organization encourage athletes to focus on this slogan at every competition.

The need to create such an institution has been brewing for a long time. Ever since the advent of professional sports, competitors have tried to achieve high results with the help of chemicals. A few decades before the creation of the doping agency, football federations and athletics, but these efforts were clearly not enough.

In the summer of 1998, during the Tour de France, a huge doping scandal erupted. The French team "Festina", which was the favorite of the competition, was disqualified. It was after this that the world sports community decided to create an anti-doping organization.

It is curious that initially WADA was fully funded by the IOC, but now these revenues have decreased. Half of the funds needed to sustain the organization come from governments major countries peace.

The work of the agency is regulated by several documents:

  • World Anti-Doping Code.
  • List of prohibited drugs.
  • International standards for testing.
  • The Therapeutic Exceptions Laboratory.

The list of substances that cannot be used by athletes is constantly updated. For example, since January 2016, meldonium has been included in it, due to the use of which a series of doping scandals and disqualification of athletes occurred.

Note that the organization has branches on four continents: in Eurasia, North and South America, Africa. We are talking about countries such as Japan, Canada, Uruguay, South Africa. Representative offices of WADA actively promote its mission, as well as interact with local governments and sports associations.

TASS-DOSIER /Pavel Duryagin/. On November 9, 2015, an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency announced systematic violations of anti-doping rules in Russia and demanded that Russian athletes be suspended from international competitions.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is an international independent organization; fund funded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and governments around the world, created to combat the use of doping in sport.

Story

WADA was created in 1999 after a scandal during the 1998 Tour de France stage race. Then, as a result of a police raid, representatives of some participating teams were found to have large quantities of prohibited substances. After that, on the initiative of the IOC, on February 2-4, 1999, the first World Conference on Doping in Sport was held in Lausanne (Switzerland), to which representatives of international sports federations and government authorities from various countries of the world were invited. On November 10, 1999, at the suggestion of the conference, an independent anti-doping organization, WADA, was established.

The Second World Conference on Doping in Sport was held in Copenhagen (Denmark) in 2003. Its participants, representatives of public authorities from 80 countries of the world and all international sports organizations for Olympic sports sport, approved the World Anti-Doping Code prepared by WADA. The WADA Code and International Standards came into force on January 1, 2004.

On October 19, 2005, at the General Conference of UNESCO, 176 states adopted the International Convention against Doping in Sport. Thus, the public authorities of these countries have assumed formal obligations to fight against the use of doping in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code.

At the Third World Conference in 2007 in Madrid, more than 600 sports organizations adopted an updated draft of the World Anti-Doping Code. The most recent version of the code came into force on January 1, 2015.

Agency structure

The WADA Board of Founders includes no more than 40 members. Council members are appointed for a term of three years and may be re-elected for an unlimited number of terms. 18 members are appointed by the IOC, at least four of them must be athletes. Another 18 members are appointed by intergovernmental organizations, governments of various countries and other public authorities involved in the fight against doping (hereinafter abbreviated as authorities). The remaining 4 members may be appointed, if necessary, by the Board of Founders, these candidates are proposed jointly by the IOC and the authorities.

In many ways, the founding council and the executive committee of WADA duplicate each other. The board meeting is always held first. But the board of founders is more ambitious, it is considered the highest body of WADA

Natalia Zhelanova

Advisor to the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation

The Board of Founders itself elects a President and Vice President from among its members for a term of three years. In order to maintain parity between representatives of the IOC and the authorities, representatives of the IOC and representatives of the authorities are alternately elected to the presidency. In the event that a representative of the IOC occupies the presidency, a representative of the authorities becomes vice-president, and vice versa.

Meetings of the Board of Founders are held as necessary, but at least once every two years. The President gathers the Board of Founders on his own initiative or at the written request of at least five members. The Board of Founders may amend existing WADA documents, appoint an audit body and an executive committee.

Between meetings of the Board of Founders, its powers are delegated to the Executive Committee. The executive committee consists of 12 members of the Board of Founders, including the president and vice president. The remaining 10 members of the executive committee are elected for a one-year term. The Executive Committee may, if necessary, create temporary and special commissions.

In addition to the headquarters in Montreal (Canada), WADA has four regional offices on different continents: in Cape Town (South Africa), Tokyo (Japan), Lausanne (Switzerland) and Montevideo (Uruguay).

According to the World Anti-Doping Code, the role of WADA is that the organization monitors compliance with the code by signatories, approves international standards necessary for compliance with the code, accreditation and re-accreditation of doping laboratories, supports anti-doping research and educational programs, etc.

Financing

In Europe, population and GDP criteria were taken as a basis. We pay the same fee as Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy - the highest for European countries

Natalia Zhelanova

Advisor to the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation

In the first two years of operation, WADA International Olympic Committee allocated $18.3 million for the work of the agency. Since 2002, WADA has received an equal amount (50 to 50 percent) of funds annually from the IOC and governments around the world.

According to the decision of the International Intergovernmental Advisory Group on Combating Doping in Sport, five regions of the world make annual contributions to the WADA fund in the following proportions: Africa - 0.5%, America - 29%, Asia - 20.46%, Europe - 47.5 %, Oceania - 2.54%. The contributions of individual countries within the regions are determined separately, usually the process of distribution of contributions is led by members executive committee of WADA from these regions.

Activities of Russians in WADA

The Athletes' Committee was formed in 2005. It represents the interests and rights of athletes around the world, providing an understanding of their role and responsibility for the possible consequences of doping. For a long time, from 2007 to 2014, the committee of athletes was headed by the legendary hockey player Vyacheslav Fetisov.

The position of the athletes of the world is such that for them the most offensive thing is to lose to the one who used doping. This is the biggest disappointment for an athlete who trains honestly - to find out after a while that the opponent was deceiving him.

Vyacheslav Fetisov

Former Head of the WADA Athletes' Committee

Until recently, Pavel Kolobkov, Deputy Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation, Pavel Kolobkov, was also a member of the WADA founding board from the Council of Europe. In addition, in 2015, Natalya Zhelanova was a member of the financial and administrative committee of the organization. Her term of three years expires on 31 December and will not be extended until 2016.

From December 1 this year, Russians will not be represented in the working bodies and commissions of organizations. This period will last until the status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) complies with the WADA Code. IN this moment RUSADA suspended from activity.

Management

Since 2013, the agency has been led by Briton Craig Reedy.

Official site - www.wada-ama.