Sport and anti-doping – the year in review 2019/20

This article surveys some of the most high-profile anti-doping stories of the last twelve months, including the eight-year ban imposed on Chinese sporting icon, Sun Yang. It also identifies various cases which involve less decorated athletes but are no less interesting and significant.

The broad structure is as follows:

• first, we look at the new Court of Arbitration for Sport Anti-Doping Division before turning to consider some appeals before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) starting with WADA v Sun Yang;
• then we identify some interesting UK cases of the last year;
• then we provide an update on the Russian state-sponsored doping scandal and flag various anti-doping decisions and events to look out for in the coming months;
• then we consider how WADA is dealing with the challenging and rapidly evolving situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic; and
• finally, we refer to a couple of matters ‘hot off the press’.

The list of cases and issues we have chosen is necessarily selective and far from exhaustive.