In competitive sports, doping is the use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs by athletic competitors, as a way of cheating. The term doping is widely used by organizations that regulate sporting competitions. The use of drugs to enhance performance is considered unethical, and is prohibited by most international sports organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. Furthermore, athletes taking explicit measures to evade detection exacerbate the ethical violation with overt deception and cheating.
The World Anti-Doping Agency is a foundation initiated by 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.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its courts are located in New York City, Sydney, and Lausanne. Temporary courts are established in current Olympic host cities.
Richard Mansell Colbeck is an Australian politician. He has been a Senator for Tasmania since 2018, representing the Liberal Party, and served a previous term in the Senate from 2002 to 2016. Colbeck served as the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services and Minister for Sport in the Second Morrison Ministry from December 2020 until May 2022, following the appointment of the Albanese ministry. Previous to this, he was the Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Youth and Sport since May 2019.
Garry Keith Downes is a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia and former President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) was a government statutory authority tasked to protect Australia's sporting integrity through the elimination of doping. The authority was part of the Department of Health's portfolio and was established on 13 March 2006 under the Australian Sports Anti‑Doping Authority Act 2006. On 1 July 2020, it became part of Sport Integrity Australia.
Sun Yang is a Chinese Olympic and world-record-holding competitive swimmer. In 2012, Sun became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in men's swimming. Sun is the first male swimmer in history to earn Olympic and World Championship gold medals at every freestyle distance from 200 to 1500 metres. A three-time Olympic gold medalist and eleven-time world champion, he is the most decorated Chinese swimmer in history. In 2017, NBC Sports described him as "arguably the greatest freestyle swimmer of all time".
Ombudsmen in Australia are independent agencies who assist when a dispute arises between individuals and industry bodies or government agencies. Government ombudsman services are free to the public, like many other ombudsman and dispute resolution services, and are a means of resolving disputes outside of the court systems. Australia has an ombudsman assigned for each state; as well as an ombudsman for the Commonwealth of Australia. As laws differ between states just one process, or policy, cannot be used across the Commonwealth. All government bodies are within the jurisdiction of the ombudsman.
Stephen Dank is an Australian biochemist who worked as a sports scientist at several professional sports club. He is known for his key role in two major sports drug cheating scandals, the Essendon Football Club supplements saga and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks supplements saga, where he injected players with illegal substances to improve their performance.
Australia has been at the forefront in the fight against doping in sport. It was one of the first countries to establish a sports anti-doping agency and is a member of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Australia abides by World Anti-Doping Code. In 2010, Australian John Fahey was re-elected as President of WADA for a second and final three-year term which finished at the end of 2013. Australia like other major countries has been embroiled in major doping in sport controversies and issues.
The organisation of sport in Australia has been largely determined by its Federal system of government – Australian Government and six states and two territories governments and local governments. All three levels play an important role in terms of funding, policies and facilities. Each major sport is managed by a national sports organisation, with state counterparts that manage community sporting clubs. Umbrella or peak organisations represent the interests of sports organisations or particular sport issues. Education sector plays a small role through universities and schools. Private sector's involvement is extensive in professional sport through facilities, club ownership and finance/sponsorship.
The Essendon Football Club supplements saga was a sports controversy that occurred during the early- and mid-2010s. It centred around the Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne and playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was investigated starting in February 2013 by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over the legality of its supplements program during the 2012 AFL season and the preceding preseason. After four years of investigations and legal proceedings, thirty-four players at the club were found guilty of having used the banned peptide Thymosin beta-4 and incurred suspensions.
Meca Medina and Majcen v Commission (2006) C-519/04 P was a landmark judgement in the European Court of Justice that established primacy of EU law over sports federations. The ruling concerned David Meca-Medina and Igor Majcen, long distance swimmers from Spain and Slovenia and their failed drugs test. The case was wide-reaching and important because it established the scope and nature that individual laws by sporting regulators, league operators and individual associations in Europe could impose their own rules and if they were in direct conflict with EU treaties, acquis or judgements by the European Courts of Justice.
The Australian Football League (AFL) started in 1897 and was originally called the Victorian Football League until the name was changed in 1990 due to the expansion to the other Australian states. AFL is seen as an iconic Australian sport which attracts large crowds averaging around 35,000 people per game. It is a very popular industry to be in since there are so many different job positions and roles.
Shayna Jack is an Australian swimmer. She competed at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, where she won two silver and two bronze medals in the relay events.
Systematic doping of Russian athletes has resulted in 48 Olympic medals stripped from Russia, four times the number of the next highest, and more than 30% of the global total. Russia has the most competitors who have been caught doping at the Olympic Games in the world, with more than 150.
Bronson Xerri is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played in 2019, as a centre for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League (NRL). He is suspended from playing in the NRL until November 2023 due to a doping violation.
Richard Freeman is a former sports physician known for his work with British Cycling and Team Sky.
Sport Integrity Australia is an executive agency of the Australian Government which commenced operation on 1 July 2020. The agency was established by the Parliament of Australia from the recommendations presented in the Report of the Review of Australia's Sports Integrity Arrangements, completed by the Department of Health.
The International Testing Agency, often referred to by the acronym ITA, is an independent organisation constituted as a non-profit foundation which implements anti-doping programs for international sports federations, major event organizers or any other anti-doping organisation requiring support. The organisation was created in 2018 under the supervision of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to promote independence, expertise and transparency in the global fight against doping. Its headquarters are located in the city of Lausanne in Switzerland.
