WADA Reveals New ‘Speak Up!’ App For Anti-Doping Violation Reporting

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recently launched its new ‘Speak Up!’ doping violation reporting app for iPhone and Android phones. The secure digital platform is intended for athletes and others to alert WADA to alleged anti-doping rule violations.

The agency encourages anyone who ‘detects, identifies, witnesses, knows of, or has reasonable grounds to suspect that cheating in sport has occurred’ to utilize the app to report the conduct. The app user can report as either as an ‘informant’ or as a ‘whistleblower’, with different paths of rights and responsibilities being tied to each role.

“WADA is pleased to launch Speak Up!, which we believe will encourage more informants and whistleblowers to come forward and report suspected doping violations,” said Olivier Niggli, Director General, WADA.  “WADA’s independent Pound and McLaren investigations, which were both triggered by whistleblowers, highlighted the importance of these individuals to the Agency and to clean sport on the whole,” Niggli continued. “This new platform is one of many measures that are being taken to enhance the Agency’s Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) capacity under the independent leadership of I&I’s Director, Günter Younger.”

“We understand that coming forward in good faith is a major decision that takes courage and conviction,” said Günter Younger, WADA’s Director of Intelligence and Investigations. “Speak Up! answers the call made by athletes and others for a secure, confidential way to report activity that goes against clean sport,” Younger continued. “My role is to ensure that the information provided is treated with the utmost confidentiality, that allegations are investigated fully; and that, in the case of whistleblowers with whom we contractually engage, they are kept informed of progress and that their rights are protected.”