November 12, 2013

This week, Monday, Nov. 12, 2012 marked the one-year countdown to the fourth World Conference on Doping in Sport, which will be held in Johannesburg next year.

The 2013 World Conference will be hosted by Sport and Recreation South Africa and the City of Johannesburg from Nov. 12-15. One of the key outcomes of the Conference will be the approval of the next World Anti-Doping Code and related International Standards by WADA’s Foundation Board.

The Code and the International Standards are currently undergoing a two-year review process involving its stakeholders and other interested parties, and will come into force on January 1, 2015.

A Brief History of the Conference Series

The first World Conference was held in Lausanne, Switzerland in early 1999 and led to the creation of WADA later that year.

In 2003, 1,200 representatives attended the second edition in Copenhagen, during which the first Code was approved.

Madrid hosted the third Conference in November 2007. It was attended by 1,600 representatives and culminated in the adoption of a revised version of the Code.