Anti-doping agencies

Independent efforts to combat doping began as early as the turn of the 20th century by the IOC, early national anti-doping agencies, and sport federations. However, these efforts were ineffective in preventing doping as they lacked coordination. Furthermore, the criticisms of the IOC's anti-doping efforts and the Tour de France doping scandal led the IOC to hold the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Lausanne resulting in the establishment of WADA in 1999. WADA is an independent international organization, and it harmonizes anti-doping efforts across the world by developing, implementing, and monitoring the implementation of the WADA code among its code signatories. NADOs implement anti-doping rules at the national level and RADOs support less-resourced NADOs and manage their delegated responsibilities. There are some power imbalances between WADA and NADOs. Despite all these efforts, major doping scandals are still posing challenges to these anti-doping organizations.