In the summer of 1998 the sporting world was rocked by yet another doping scandal, this time of massive proportions. Following a police raid on the Tour de France cyclists, evidence of widespread and substantial use of prohibited substances was revealed.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) felt it was time to up the stakes in the ongoing fight against doping in sport and convened the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Lausanne in February 1999 providing for the creation of an independent international anti-doping agency to be fully operational for the Olympic Games of Sydney 2000.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) based in Montreal, Canada was thus set up and since then has brought together the major players in the sporting field (athletes, international sporting federations and governments) in an attempt to harmonise testing, rules and regulations around the globe. Improvements have been significant.

As a result of the new World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code there has been considerable advance in getting most sporting bodies to hand out sanctions following a positive test according to more standard criteria (harmonisation of sanctions) as well as an intensification of the out-of-competition testing (OOCT) programs in order to catch athletes whilst they are actually using the banned substances.

This involves testing athletes without notice, outside competition periods in order to deal a blow to the practice of using prohibited substances before major events and then stopping in time for competition. The results have been there for all to see with a considerable number of high-profile athletes from various sports being sanctioned not only during major games such as the Olympics but also during the run-up to such events.

New diagnostic techniques for substances that were not detected previously (e.g. erythropoietin and human Growth Hormone) have been developed by the labs and a number of countries have updated their laws to allow them to fight against doping through police and judicial investigations.

The Malta Olympic Committee signed its acceptance of the WADA Code in February 2004 thus accepting the responsibility of bringing OOCT to acceptable international standards within its jurisdiction. Since in Malta we do not yet have a National Anti-Doping Agency as is the case in most other countries, to co-ordinate a National Anti-Doping Policy, the MOC Anti-Doping Commission has had to organise OOCT for most national level athletes on its own.

This year saw this programme offered to elite athletes preparing for the Commonwealth Games while next year it will be opening up to a much larger group of athletes preparing for the GSSE in Monaco.

In order for the MOC to be able to prepare for this type of testing a lot of information from athletes is needed with regards to training sites and times, travelling, competitions and training camps. This information has to be updated regularly and used for local drug testing programmes as well as to be passed on to WADA.