WADA - Athlete Whereabouts
Athletes are ambassadors and role models. They have an important responsibility in protecting the integrity of their sport. Part of that obliga- tion means that you will now need to provide whereabouts details so that anti-doping authorities can better ensure all athletes play true.
Why Whereabouts?
Providing whereabouts is about protecting your right to clean sport. Whereabouts information gives the Anti-Doping Organization (ADO) the ability to locate athletes with no notice, which is vital to testing athletes who choose to cheat themselves by doping.
Knowing where athletes can be found for testing is crucial for ensuring effective anti-doping programs.
Who is Included?
Very few athletes are in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) and need to provide accurate and current whereabouts information.
International Federations and National Anti-Doping Organizations are responsible for determining if you are required to provide whereabouts information or not.
What do I Need to Provide?
If you are asked to provide whereabouts information by your ADO, you may be required to provide information such as:
- home address
- training information and locations
- competition schedules
- regular personal activities such as work or school
For those few athletes included in a RTP, one 60-minute time period a day, where you’ll be available for testing, must also be provided.
Remember that all athletes can still be tested anytime and anywhere. However, for RTP athletes, a missed test may be recorded if you are unavailable during your declared 60-minute window.
Criteria for inclusion of an athlete in the Registered Testing Pool
Before forming our Registered Testing Pool (RTP), the IFCPF Anti-Doping Committee undertakes a WADA Risk Assessment process.
Conducting a risk assessment is intended to increase the effectiveness of a testing program by understanding the actual doping risks and subsequently applying a customized testing program to address these risks.
A proper assessment of doping risks is essential to determine where resources should be targeted and what type of test and analysis is most appropriate. A thorough, well-informed, and documented risk assessment also establishes an objective basis to inform a testing program that is in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code and such an assessment and plan is in and of itself a requirement for Code compliance.
First of all, the main factors which are considered:
- Current performance level of countries based upon IFCPF World Rankings.
- The perceived Risk Factor associated to anti-doping efforts by country, utilising WADA intelligence.
- The perceived NADO Strength, utilising WADA intelligence.
Additional considerations:
- Competition programme for the year ahead and likely participation of countries.
- Awareness of financial rewards for sporting performance
- History of doping in sport or country
- Past athlete’s whereabouts failures