Gary Irwin Wadler was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 12, 1939. After graduating from Brooklyn College and Cornell Medical School, he worked as an internist. He was also a clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University for many years. He went on to become an authority on the use of performance-enhancing substances and their effects on athletes.
In 1980, he became the tournament physician at the United States Open tennis tournament. His interest in performance-enhancing drugs was ignited in 1986 when he was asked to take a urine test during his time at the U.S. Open. He wrote a textbook with Brian Hainline entitled Drugs and the Athlete, which was published in 1989. Four years later, he received the President's Award from the International Olympic Committee. He served as chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited list and methods committee. He died from multiple system atrophy, a degenerative neurological disorder, on September 12, 2017 at the age of 78.
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