WADA at twenty: old problems and old thinking?

The decision taken at Lausanne in 1999 to establish WADA representeda new start in anti-doping: a new organization under new leadershipwith new sources of funding, new headquarters and a new and wideranti-doping remit. The establishment of WADA also representeda potential new start in another way, for it offered an opportunity todevelop fresh thinking and new approaches to anti-doping. To whatextent has such fresh thinking been evident in WADA policy over thepast twenty years? This question is examined via a focus on two keypolicy issues: WADA’s rationale for anti-doping policy and the reliance ofWADA’s anti-doping policy on a strategy based on biological testing.What have been the implications of decisions in these areas for theoutcomes of WADA policy, as measured by the number, and the type,of doping offences identified by WADA? It is argued that in manyrespects WADA’s policies represent a missed opportunity for, far frombringing new thinking or offering a new approach to anti-doping, WADAhas for the most part simply reiterated and intensified policies whichhave a long history of failure and that those policies continue to belargely unsuccessful in controlling drug use in spor