Busan City Hosts the 2025 World Anti-Doping Agency General Assembly, the First in Asia

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Busan Metropolitan City and the Korea Anti-Doping Agency (KADA) have succeeded in securing the bid to host the 2025 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) General Assembly.

On the 19th, WADA held a board meeting in Cairo, Egypt, and conducted a vote to select the host city for the 2025 General Assembly.

In the vote by 36 WADA board members, Busan received overwhelming support and was selected as the host city. The voting results were not disclosed, but WADA described it as an "overwhelming victory."

Busan also earned the title of "the first Asian city to host a WADA General Assembly." Previous WADA General Assembly host cities include four European cities?Lausanne, Switzerland (1999); Copenhagen, Denmark (2003); Madrid, Spain (2007); Katowice, Poland (2019)?and one African city, Johannesburg, South Africa (2013).

The WADA General Assembly is the largest global conference in the field of anti-doping. Approximately 2,000 participants attend, including International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, International Paralympic Committee (IPC) members, representatives of international sports federations, sports ministers from various countries, and national anti-doping organizations.

KADA explained the significance of Busan’s successful bid by stating, "Hosting the WADA General Assembly will strengthen Korea’s influence in international sports," and "It provides an opportunity to establish an international cooperative system and widely promote Korea’s anti-doping activities."

Jang In-hwa, Chair of the Bid Committee (also President of the Busan Sports Council and Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry), said, "We are pleased that the 2025 WADA General Assembly will be held in Busan, the city of sports, as the first in Asia," and emphasized, "We will do our best to promote fair and mature sports development and to successfully host the General Assembly."

Kim Kyung-hwa, Director of International Sports at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who attended as a government representative, stated, "We will support Busan in playing a leading role in the Asian region through the hosting of the 2025 General Assembly."

Kim Geum-pyeong, Secretary General of KADA, also explained, "We will successfully host the General Assembly in cooperation with WADA and Busan City by spreading the value of sports domestically and internationally and promoting the Olympic spirit."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.