Anti-doping Regime WADA

Immediate context: Famous Tennis player NOVAK DJOKOVICH has voiced his disapproval of his own doping test just before the beginning of a match, which he thinks was a disruption in preparation. He still voiced his support for doping tests but wanted better timings.

In the last 70 years institutional doping i.e. state sponsored & individual continued affecting health of athletes. The countries notable for this abuse were soviet union & former eastern bloc countries and china.

Modern abuse -  With the advent of modern pharmacology in the 19th century, many athletes began to experiment with cocktails of drugs to improve strength and overcome fatigue. As this practice was not illegal, there are good records of the lengths athletes would go to in order to win. Alongside the benefits, came the dangers and following several fatalities, a code to ban performance enhancing drugs was gradually developed. Growth hormone was first isolated from the human pituitary gland in the 1950s. Its anabolic effects were soon recognised and athletes had begun to abuse it by the early 1980s, at least a decade before it was used therapeutically by adult endocrinologists. A number of high profile athletes have admitted using growth hormone. Detection of its abuse has been challenging and the lack of an effective test has undoubtedly encouraged its abuse. Only now are methodologies being developed that should stem this tide.