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U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)

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Science

Research | Leadership | Innovation

Science plays a crucial role in the fight for clean competition, and USADA’s expert scientists are leaders in the anti-doping community globally. One of the most important areas where USADA’s science team has significant impact is research and scientific advancement in methods and practices that detect and deter the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport. During the period from 2001-2009, USADA budgeted $2 million per year to support research in areas including anabolic steroids, growth hormone, oxygen transport-enhancing substances, genetic doping, and ethics, among others. Today, research efforts and resources are pooled and led by the Partnership for Clean Competition (PCC), a non-profit collaboration, which was founded in 2008 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, the National Football League, and Major League Baseball.

Annual USADA Symposium on Anti-Doping Science

The USADA Symposium on Anti-Doping Science is a global gathering, aimed at bringing together the best anti-doping experts from around the world, often including guests from as many as 30 countries, to inform and shape meaningful anti-doping research programs for the future.

The L.D. Bowers Award for Excellence in Anti-Doping Science

Science plays a crucial role in the fight for clean competition, furthering both the deterrence and detection of performance-enhancing drug use in sport. To recognize and award the achievements of scientists who have made an impact on anti-doping approaches and best practices, USADA launched the L.D. Bowers Award for Excellence in Anti-Doping Science in 2016.

Matt Fedoruk, Matthis Kamber, and Larry Bowers standing together with an award for Matthis.

SCIENCE IS THE FOUNDATION VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

MATTHEW FEDORUK, USADA Chief Science Officer: Science is really the foundation of anti-doping. As science advances, we need to incorporate technological changes that we then use in order to be more effective, more sensitive, more specific at detecting those doping substances.

DANIEL EICHNER, SMTRL Lab President: There’s been a lot of really good improvements in the last 20 years in anti-doping science and techniques. We try to set up a system where it’s much easier and convenient and cheaper to get these collections anywhere in the world.

MATTHEW FEDORUK: We are moving to more athlete-friendly ways of collecting samples.

ABBY RAYMOND, Team USA Weightlifting Athlete: DBS collections have improved my experience as an athlete because they are super easy, they are efficient, and completely painless.

MATTHEW FEDORUK: Athletes, by feeling confident, they can go on the field of play and know that the winners and being on the podium and the results that they see are the direct result of excellent anti-doping science, and all the research that goes into making sure samples are analyzed for all the substances and all the threats that are out there.