Often referred to as one of the fathers of drug testing in sport, Don Catlin, M.D. has been at the forefront of the global battle against the use of performance-enhancing drugs for more than a quarter of a century.
— Washington Post, March 13, 2007
“The man described as the ‘guru of sports doping.'”
— Los Angeles Times, November 11, 2008
“Some call Dr. Don Catlin… the father of drug testing in sports.”
— New York Times, September 18, 2007
In 1982, Dr. Catlin founded the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, the first anti-doping laboratory in the United States, to service the 1984 Olympic Games. Under his stewardship the lab grew to become the world’s largest testing facility of performance-enhancing drugs. It conducted testing for the 1984, 1996, and 2002 Olympic Games and the 1994 World Cup as well as serviced drug testing programs for the U.S. Olympic Committee, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Major League Baseball’s Minor Leagues and the National Football League.
Dr. Catlin also has made many scientific contributions to the field, including: developing the testing technology that differentiates natural from artificial testosterone (Carbon Isotope Ratio); inaugurating the test for darbepoetin alfa at the Salt Lake Olympics; becoming the first to report a designer steroid (norbolethone) in sport, and marshaling the analytic work to identify the designer steroid THG, the banned substance at the heart of the BALCO scandal, and madol.
He continues to contribute to the field of anti-doping and service the sports community in a number of capacities:
- CEO and President, Anti Doping Research, Inc.
- Longtime member, International Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission
- Member, World Anti-Doping Agency Research and Education Committee
- Chairman, Equine Drug Research Institute’s Scientific Advisory Committee
- Professor Emeritus, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Selected publications of Dr. Catlin and his team are available if you are interested.
