The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was set up in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee and publishes the list of banned substances and monitors drug use in sport through random tests.
In a review of some of the practices and procedures used by WADA, a leading sports scientist from the USA and a top marathon coach from the UK have identified major problems that they believe will lead to innocent athletes paying the price for a flawed anti-doping system.
Key to their finding was a lack of scientific evidence and protocol at the heart of WADA's operations.
"Drug testing and classification should be a scientific affair, unfortunately WADA appears to have little to no understanding of the criteria for science," said Dr Brent Rushall from San Diego State University, a four-time Olympic Team psychologist for Canada, who co-wrote the article with Max Jones, a multiple age-group world-record holding runner who has studied the drugs in sport movement.
"The actions and scope of WADA are causes for grave concern for the anti-drugs in sport movement. It is inevitable that if WADA continues its practices, professional athletes will be driven out of the Olympic Games."
Problems identified by the authors include:
The authors cite the hysteria surrounding Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS) as an example of WADA's poor use of science.
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