A welcome word from WADA’s President

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), I am delighted to extend an invitation to the Agency’s 2020 Annual Symposium, which will be held on 17-18 March 2020 in the Olympic Capital city of Lausanne, Switzerland.

The WADA Symposium, which is the main event on the annual global anti-doping calendar, gathers anti-doping practitioners from around the world and provides them with the opportunity to interact and learn from one another. This year, athletes, representatives from Anti-Doping Organizations, Governments, WADA-accredited laboratories and Athlete Passport Management Units, as well as other stakeholders such as the media, researchers and service providers are invited to gather in Lausanne under the theme “Bringing the 2021 Code and Standards into action”.

The 2020 edition of the Symposium will, among other matters, explore the new elements of the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code and International Standards, which were approved at the Fifth World Conference on Doping in Sport in November 2019.

In addition, following the success of the first ever dedicated Athlete Session during the 2019 Symposium, I am pleased to confirm that the Agency will once again dedicate a full day exclusively to athletes on Thursday, 19 March. Given my sporting background in athletics and the speedskating success of WADA’s new Vice President, Yang Yang, we look forward to engaging with athletes on this occasion and beyond to positively influence the pursuit of Clean Sport.

The WADA team and I look forward to welcoming all of its stakeholders from around the world in Lausanne in March 2020 as the Agency brings the 2021 Code into action.

With best regards,

Witold Bańka

WADA President