This article examines the role of young athletes in the development of the anti-doping movement in sport. In the law and ethics literature, children are considered a vulnerable population in need of special consideration and protection. Yet historically they have not always been treated as such, and in sport many rules apply universally to all competitors regardless of the participants' ages. This article provides a historical examination of drug testing policies created by the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Agency as they relate to minors as a means to uncover the ways in which anti-doping organisations have included age as a variable warranting special consideration. Challenges to anti-doping sanctions based on athletes' ages demonstrate that sport organisations, including the Court of Arbitration for Sport, have not placed much emphasis on the protected status of child athletes. This article situates children and youth in the history of drug testing policies and demonstrates how the unique rights of child athletes have been both managed and neglected.