India's National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) works under which ministry?

The correct answer is B, Montreal, Canada. WADA began work in 1999 from Lausanne and then moved its headquarters to Montreal, where the agency has remained; Lausanne continues as its European office. Option A is wrong, and it is the trap in this question, because Lausanne is the seat of the International Olympic Committee and of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, so candidates place every sports body there. Option C is wrong because Paris is the headquarters of UNESCO, which adopted the International Convention against Doping in Sport in 2005, and of the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education, not of WADA. Option D is wrong because New York holds the United Nations headquarters and a branch office of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but no office of WADA of that standing. Remembering the pair Montreal for WADA and Lausanne for the Olympic bodies settles a whole family of questions.

The correct answer is C, 1999. WADA was created on 10 November 1999, a year after the Festina affair of the 1998 Tour de France, in which a team car carrying banned drugs exposed how organised doping had become and pushed the Olympic movement and governments to build a joint agency. Option A is wrong because 1984 is the year the Court of Arbitration for Sport was established on the initiative of the International Olympic Committee. Option B is wrong because 1994 is the year of the Paris Agreement, by which the International Council of Arbitration for Sport was created to run that court independently. Option D is wrong because 2004 is the year the World Anti-Doping Code came into force, on 1 January, five years after the agency itself. Holding the sequence 1984 for the court, 1994 for its council, 1999 for WADA and 2004 for the Code answers four questions at once.

The correct answer is A, Lausanne, in Switzerland. CAS was established in 1984 at the initiative of the International Olympic Committee, whose own headquarters is in the same city, and it also keeps branch offices at Sydney and New York besides sitting in ad hoc divisions at the Olympic Games. Option B is wrong because Geneva hosts the United Nations European headquarters, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization, but not this court. Option C is wrong because The Hague is the seat of the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which are courts between states, not between athletes and federations. Option D is wrong because Monaco is the headquarters of World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, which is a federation and not a tribunal. Appeals from a CAS award lie only to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

The correct answer is C, UNESCO. Because WADA is a private foundation, governments needed an instrument of international law through which they could commit themselves to the Code, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization provided it by adopting the International Convention against Doping in Sport in 2005. It is the treaty that most countries, India among them, have ratified. Option A is wrong because the World Health Organization deals with health standards and medicines but is not the parent of this convention. Option B is wrong because the International Olympic Committee is a private body and cannot make a treaty; it enforces the Code through the conditions of entry to the Games instead. Option D is wrong because the Commonwealth Games Federation only organises its own Games and, like other federations, is a signatory to the Code rather than the author of a convention.

The correct answer is C, stimulants and narcotics. The Prohibited List divides substances into those banned at all times, those banned only in competition and those banned only in particular sports. Stimulants, narcotics, cannabinoids and glucocorticoids fall in the in-competition group, because their effect is felt on the day of the event rather than through training. Option A is wrong because anabolic agents, which build muscle during training, are banned at all times, in and out of competition. Option B is wrong because peptide hormones and growth factors, among them erythropoietin and growth hormone, are likewise banned at all times. Option D is wrong because diuretics and masking agents are banned at all times, since their purpose is to flush or hide the traces of other drugs. Beta-blockers are the class banned only in particular sports, such as archery and shooting, where a slow heartbeat steadies the aim.