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WADA selects Busan, Korea to host 2025 World Conference on Doping in Sport

Cairo FB Busan

The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) Foundation Board (Board) has selected Busan, Republic of Korea, as the host city for the sixth World Conference on Doping in Sport, which will take place in November 2025. Busan, a port city in the south-east of the country, was favored in a vote ahead of two other candidates, namely Muscat, Oman; and Tampere, Finland. A fourth candidate city, Athens, Greece, withdrew its candidacy prior to the vote.

The World Conference convenes athletes and more than 1,500 representatives from the Sport Movement, Governments, National and Regional Anti-Doping Organizations, laboratories, service providers, researchers and the media – all that are integral to the mission for doping-free sport. The previous host cities of the World Conference were Lausanne, Switzerland (1999), Copenhagen, Denmark (2003), Madrid, Spain (2007), Johannesburg, South Africa (2013) and Katowice, Poland (2019).

At today’s Board meeting in Cairo, Egypt, members received presentations from each candidate city, after which a vote was conducted with Busan emerging as the preferred host securing an absolute majority in the first round of voting.

Busan was considered to be a strong candidate for many reasons, including the fact that its bid was fully supported by all levels of Government as well as from national sport, anti-doping and events bodies. As well as offering state-of-the-art venue facilities, the City of Busan has also proposed a number of legacy programs in the lead-up to and during the World Conference, campaigns that will help to publicize the event and foster a spirit of values-based sport and solidarity across the city.

WADA President, Witold Bańka, said: “I congratulate the City of Busan on being selected to host WADA’s 2025 World Conference on Doping in Sport. It is a significant achievement considering the high quality of the other bids that were part of the process. I have no doubt that the 2025 World Conference will be enormously successful and a credit to its Korean hosts. I would like to thank the cities of Athens, Muscat and Tampere for submitting strong bids and for being willing to support this important event, which is key to advancing WADA’s global collaborative mission for doping-free sport.

“We will now work closely with the authorities in Busan to ensure the success of the World Conference and all associated activities. An organizing team made up of representatives of the local government, sports and anti-doping authorities, as well as WADA staff will be assembled so that planning for the event can commence without delay.”

This edition of the World Conference will engage the anti-doping community in high-level discussion and debate about the global anti-doping program, practices and processes, and allow the community to take stock of progress being made towards the Katowice Declaration that was approved by stakeholders during WADA’s 2019 World Conference. The Declaration called upon “all stakeholders in the fight against doping in sport to reinforce their efforts to strengthen their cooperation in every possible way; to present a unified front to strive to eradicate doping in sport; to increase resources dedicated to protecting clean sport; and, to bring all perpetrators to account, without limitation”.

The 38-member Board, which is meeting today in Cairo, is WADA’s highest policy-making body. It is composed equally of representatives from the Sport Movement, including athletes, and Governments of the world, as well as independent voices, including the WADA President and Vice-President. Members of the Board are appointed by their respective constituency groups.