The latest news out of WADA will be primarily of interest to high-level athletes, but the World Anti-Doping organization has unveiled a new App for athletes to file their Whereabouts information.
The App, which will be available both on Android and iPhone platforms, will allow athletes to update mandatory filings about their location from their smartphones. These filings are referred to as “Whereabouts” filings; each athlete who is in their respective federation’s Whereabouts testing pool must notify the organization of where they will be for at least a 60 minute window every day. These 60 minutes must fall between 6 AM and 11 PM
This is a vital part of the anti-doping mechanism, as it allows testers to show up unannounced for out-of-competition testing. Three failures to either file, or be at the filed location, within 18 months results in disciplinary action. The most famous case of this in swimming is Venezuelan Albert Subirats, though his one-year suspension was eventually overturned.
The USADA already has an App that American athletes can use for their filings, but now the rest of the world will have access to the same service. WADA’s app will be based upon one used by the Dutch Doping Authority.