Protecting athletes and ensuring sports--free of doping.

Whenever we talk about Dopagem (the Portuguese term adopted by the Autoridade Brasileira de Controle de Dopagem—ABCD—for the act of doping) people usually think only about the consumption of performanceenhancing drugs. Sometimes this is true. However, the larger truth is that doping is not restricted to drugs of any type, it is about ethics; it is about values. When an athlete uses prohibited substances and methods in a sport which she or he practices, they are cheating the competition, defrauding other athletes, who have a talent, a technique, and the willpower to devote their lives to training and competition. Can you imagine anything more unfair? The larger mission of the ABCD is to protect all athletes who compete cleanly, only with their talent, technique, strength, and will. Not coincidentally, the motto of the World Anti-Doping Agency-–WADA-–is Fairness (Play True, Jogo limpo). When talking aboutWADA, people usually believe that international institutions to combat doping are a relatively recent development in the history of global sports. However, the present situation is the result of many years of antidoping efforts in the athlete’s life as well as in the entire sports community that surrounds them. Brazil was one of the first signatories of the International Convention against Doping in Sport—CICDE, held in Paris on October 19, 2005, during the 33th General Convention of UNESCO. Inspired by the experience of the best institutions in the world for doping control, the ABCD was founded on November 30, 2011, fulfilling one of the commitments made by Brazil on the occasion of the candidacy of Rio de Janeiro to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016 and, in addition, to meet the requirement established byWADA that all countries have specific and independent plans for the fight against doping in sport. By accepting the invitation of the Brazilian Minister of Sports, Aldo Rebelo, to build and implement the ABCD, I began to research the issue and it became clear tome that it was fundamental for us to develop our strategic planning. In order to propose feasible solutions to meet the chal-