The Lab & The Library

Key Anti-Doping and Doping Developments in Sport

The following is a snapshot of key anti-doping and doping developments in sport over the past 50 years.

~ By Category

To view a category of the timeline, click below on its description.

Milestone in testing

	1968: The IOC conducts the first doping control urine tests at the Olympic Summer Games in Mexico City.
	Late 1980s: Some sports conduct the first out-of-competition doping control urine tests.
	2008: Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) launches the Biological Passport monitoring program.
	2008: USADA launches the opening phase of Project Believe, a pilot voluntary program for monitoring athletes.

Milestone in regulatory context

	1967: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) establishes a medical commission to deal with doping in sports.
	2000: World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA, established in 1999) and United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) begin operations.
	2004: the IOC transfers the management of the Prohibited List to WADA.
	2007: The Mitchell Report, detailing the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball and recommending ways to combat it, is released.

Key setback for athlete(s)

	1960: Danish cyclist Knut Jensen dies during a road race at the Summer Olympics in Rome; he was on a stimulant.
	1967: British cyclist Tommy Simpson dies of an overdose of amphetamine, a stimulant, during the Tour de France.
	1988: At the Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, Canadian track and field sprinter Ben Johnson tests positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid.
	1998: The Tour de France doping scandal, including doping substances seizures and doping confessions, shakes the world of cycling.
	2008: Track and field champion Marion Jones is sentenced to prison for lying to federal prosecutors investigating the use of performance-enhancing substances.

Accomplishment of Dr. Don Catlin

	1982: Dr. Don Catlin founds the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, the first anti-doping lab in the United States.
	1990s: Dr. Don Catlin is first to offer the carbon isotope ratio test, a urine test that can determine whether anabolic steroids were naturally made by the body or came from taking a prohibited substance.
	2002: At the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Dr. Don Catlin reports the blood booster darbepoetin alfa, a form of EPO (erythropoietin), for the first time in sports.
	2002: Dr. Don Catlin identifies for the first time in an athlete’s urine sample norbolethone, the first reported designer anabolic steroid.
	2003: In the BALCO Affair, Dr. Don Catlin identifies and develops a test for tetrahydrogestrinone or THG, the second reported designer anabolic steroid, in a sample from a used syringe turned in anonymously to USADA.
	2004: Dr. Don Catlin identifies madol, the third reported designer anabolic steroid.
	Since 2004: Dr. Don Catlin identifies several more designer steroids.
	2005: Dr. Don Catlin and colleagues found the nonprofit organization Anti-Doping Research, Inc.



~ Complete Timeline To view the complete timeline, scroll down.

	1960: Danish cyclist Knut Jensen dies during a road race at the Summer Olympics in Rome; he was on a stimulant.
	1967: British cyclist Tommy Simpson dies of an overdose of amphetamine, a stimulant, during the Tour de France.
	1967: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) establishes a medical commission to deal with doping in sports.
	1968: The IOC conducts the first doping control urine tests at the Olympic Summer Games in Mexico City.
	1982: Dr. Don Catlin founds the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, the first anti-doping lab in the United States.
	1988: At the Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, Canadian track and field sprinter Ben Johnson tests positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid.
	Late 1980s: Some sports conduct the first out-of-competition doping control urine tests.
	1990s: Dr. Don Catlin is first to offer the carbon isotope ratio test, a urine test that can determine whether anabolic steroids were naturally made by the body or came from taking a prohibited substance.
	1998: The Tour de France doping scandal, including doping substances seizures and doping confessions, shakes the world of cycling.
	2000: World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA, established in 1999) and United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) begin operations.
	2002: At the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Dr. Don Catlin reports the blood booster darbepoetin alfa, a form of EPO (erythropoietin), for the first time in sports.
	2002: Dr. Don Catlin identifies for the first time in an athlete’s urine sample norbolethone, the first reported designer anabolic steroid.
	2003: In the BALCO Affair, Dr. Don Catlin identifies and develops a test for tetrahydrogestrinone or THG, the second reported designer anabolic steroid, in a sample from a used syringe turned in anonymously to USADA.
	2004: the IOC transfers the management of the Prohibited List to WADA.
	2004: Dr. Don Catlin identifies madol, the third reported designer anabolic steroid.
	Since 2004: Dr. Don Catlin identifies several more designer steroids.
	2005: Dr. Don Catlin and colleagues found the nonprofit organization Anti-Doping Research, Inc.
	2007: The Mitchell Report, detailing the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball and recommending ways to combat it, is released.
	2008: Track and field champion Marion Jones is sentenced to prison for lying to federal prosecutors investigating the use of performance-enhancing substances.
	2008: Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) launches the Biological Passport monitoring program.
	2008: USADA launches the opening phase of Project Believe, a pilot voluntary program for monitoring athletes.