ABSTRACT
The decision was taken, more than 40 years ago, to exclude doping from amateur sport. In order to do so, the International Olympic Committee formed a Medical Commission responsible for defining the substances prohibited during competition and for establishing a network of laboratories capable of testing athletes’ specimens. At the time, given the existing technology and knowledge, only stimulants (mainly amphetamines) could be tested for. The development of immunoassays for 17α-methylated steroids and 19-norsteroids gave the first tool for detecting anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS),1,2 but the real breakthrough came from the commercialisation of highly efficient software-operated analytical instruments combining high-resolution gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, allowing the automated analysis of batches of samples with high sensitivity.
