25 Years of USADA

Kara Goucher, 2 time Olympian and Vice Chair of USADA’s Board of Directors: I think in the last 25 years, USADA’s  biggest achievement is just starting to establish that level playing field, becoming a federation, an anti-doping agency, which is a leader in the space. And just as an athlete that was a part of that program, you know, coming up when I was racing, you know, there’s like a pride when you know that your anti-doping program is the leader of the world. And so, I think they’ve just accomplished so much in just like really setting the standard for what all athletes want.

Travis Tygart, CEO, USADA: I think fairness in sport is the essence of why we play sport. And it certainly is a confirmation of the values that society believes in. And so, seeing fairness upheld on a daily basis, just continues to give hope to everyone, no matter if they’re an athlete or not an athlete, that the values of fairness and justice and sport means something, and they should mean something in every aspect of society.

Kasey Weber, Whereabouts Compliance Supervisor, USADA: That’s why we need to protect those things for athletes and for sport, is because those values are part of everything that we all do, and that we would want someone to fight and defend those values for us, for the things that matter most to us.

Phyllis Starks, DCO, USADA: When I was coming through, there was no one out there to protect me, when I was competing in high school. I have an opportunity to give back. And guess what? USADA has given me that platform where I can be my best and help others in a big way.

Kevin Brousard, Doping Control Operations Manager, USADA: I think it’s an extremely virtuous thing to uphold clean sport. And for us to work on that every single day and pass that message along, I think it really is a universal message that people will buy into and they appreciate. And that’s why I think everybody plays an extremely important part in upholding clean sport.

Lindsey Stafford, Olympic & Paralympic Programs Director, USADA: I have had the fabulous opportunity of going out and speaking with athletes here at USADA. And it’s amazing to talk with them and hear about their sacrifices and hear about everything they’ve worked hard to achieve. But I’ve also had the opportunity to hear about opportunities missed from others that, you know, they’ve been cheated out of something. And when you sit and you talk to them and you hear firsthand and you see the hurt and the pain and everything that they have missed on, I think it has just really resonated with me. And I have young kids, and as I see my kids progress through sport in their own adventures and advancements, I just always think to myself, I would never want that to happen to the ones I love the most. And so, I think it’s, you know, it matters at every level.

Betsy Douglass, TrueSport Operations and Outreach Education Manager, USADA: One of the things that I am most proud of is just USADA’s unwavering commitment to doing what is right, even when the decision is really, really difficult. You know, we’ve been a part of  landmark investigations and cases in anti-doping from cycling to Balco. But those help set   anti-doping policies around the world.

Lisa McCumber, Testing Results Manager, USADA: Oh, USADA’s achievements in the last 25 years. Oh my goodness. What have we- We have achieved so much. I mean, we were one of the first organizations to create a state-of-the-art DCO manual that even WADA wanted us to write for them so that they could use it in training RADOs around the world.

Matthew Fedoruk, Chief Science Officer, USADA: Twenty five years is such a monumental anniversary when we think about the evolution of USADA starting out and having to write rules and basic procedures to now being a scientific leader in the anti-doping space, the development of new innovations that help athletes, help us collect samples on athletes in a more athlete-friendly manner, as well as just the continued scientific leadership that I’m particularly proud of. And those around the world that help to detect new substances. And deter athletes from doping. I think when you think about how much has been achieved over the years, how much money has been spent, I hope that we’ve been able to keep up with the threats that are emerging and will continue to innovate and use technology in ways to further improve that in the future.

Ellen Hanley, DCO, USADA: In my 25 years at USADA, I have seen our growth from something very small to a much larger imprint. And now we have doping control officers that have institutional knowledge that takes years and years and years to accumulate to take care of our current athletes.

Judi Brown Clarke, PhD, Olympian and Chair of USADA’s Board of Directors: We’ve got a great foundation around education, preventative measures, understanding your rights. It’s making sure that information is pushed out to our athletes, our coaches, support staff, our families, and so on. The other piece is making sure within our advocacy and championships that we have strong relationships with our stakeholders and partners, and then just staying ahead of this incredible challenge of how people are getting ahead of the doping process.

Edwin Moses, ScD hc, 3x Olympian and Emeritus Chair of USADA’s Board of Directors: I think we’ve achieved a lot as an organization, keeping the lid on clean sport and protecting athletes from themselves and even protecting athletes from the sports that control them. And we’ve been able to keep up with the science and the humanity of the sport and make sure that everything’s fair and clean.

Jeff Cook, Chief Legal & Operations Officer, USADA: We’ve had great successes in our cases and investigations, holding both athletes and athlete support personnel accountable for violating the rules and cheating to achieve results that they wouldn’t otherwise achieve. We’ve also had success in our advocacy. So, really speaking out on behalf of clean athletes who so often do not have that independent representation at the decision making table and whose voices are so often not heard, so we try to fill that gap and speak out on behalf of clean athletes.

Betsy Douglass, TrueSport Operations and Outreach Education Manager, USADA: We’ve also set a standard for clean sport, you know, building this independent, science driven anti-doping organization that’s looked at by other countries as a model of how it should be. We’ve created TrueSport, as an initiative to reach those young athletes early and often to help change that culture of youth sport.

Lindsey Stafford, Olympic & Paralympic Programs Director, USADA: A true achievement is how we’ve always been able to prioritize our athletes. And really, everything that we do is putting the athletes first. They are our guiding light for how we make decisions, how we make, you know, where we want to be and what we want to say, and really being a voice And I think that’s a huge success for USADA to ensure that we are living and breathing our mission and our vision and a big achievement for us to always be prioritizing athletes.

Matthew Fedoruk, Chief Science Officer, USADA: The threats to doping and to clean sport are as big as ever, I think with the pressures that athletes feel, the breadth of doping substances that are out there. And we haven’t found all the solutions yet. There’s still methods and ways to dope that we need to develop new science around and continue to evolve. As well as continuing to be fair to athletes and making sure that our processes and our systems don’t unfairly penalize athletes for things like contamination or non-doping exposure to substances. So, making sure that the rules evolve and we continue to push ourselves to make the system fair and athletes feel confident in that is really, really important.

Tammy Hanson, Elite Education Director, USADA: Alysia Montaño once said, “Dopers take away the idea of amazing. And I still believe amazing exists.” And that quote really resonated with me. I just feel like amazing exists in sport. And when we turn on the television, we want to see amazing. We want to see people perform at their best, and we want to see things that we don’t see every day and world records being broken. And we want to see that the fair and clean way. So, that’s why everyone, athletes, athlete support personnel, and even people outside of sport should care about clean sport because dopers take away the idea of amazing and amazing does exist.

Emily Bench, Business Solutions Analyst, USADA: It’s not easy oftentimes to have courage, but great stories are made from people who have integrity and who have practiced day in and day out in their ordinary lives that practice of courage so that when big moments arise, the right answer is the obvious one.

Brett DeGeorge, Olympic & Paralympic Programs Manager, USADA: I feel like sport has always been able to kind of be a beacon of, you know, people coming together, doing the right thing, sportsmanship, people working hard and those things paying off. So, I just say continue to be good and decent and continue to do the right things. So, that way, when the world does feel down sometimes that we have something to continue to look towards as a beacon of hope.

Richard Brooks, DCO, USADA: My hope for USADA in the future is to continue to be an advocate for clean athletes, and continue to level the playing field.

Tammy Hanson, Elite Education Director, USADA: My hope is that we don’t settle that we have the cleanest games in 2028, that we provide protection for athletes and whistleblowers, and that we are a trusted resource for all stakeholders.

Travis Tygart, CEO, USADA: Don’t be afraid to be, to honor, stand up for, be brave for clean athletes. Unfortunately, there is a lot of apathy. I’ve heard it said a lot of sheep and a lot of turtles. We have to remember, as I think Edmund Burke said, you know, “For evil to prevail, good people stay silent.” Good people should not be ashamed of or afraid to stand up and do what’s right, speaking out, acting on behalf of clean athletes and justice and fairness in sport.