WADA launches its new Athlete Central Whereabouts app

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is pleased to announce that Athlete Central, the Agency’s new app that facilitates athlete compliance with whereabouts rules under the global anti-doping programme, is available for use and download from the Apple Store and Google Play. Athlete Central, which is powered by WADA’s Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS), replaces WADA’s current app 
 
Whereabouts rules, which are a key component of global sport’s out-of-competition testing programmes, are part of the International Standard for Testing and Investigations. The rules require athletes within a Registered Testing Pool (RTP) to provide their Anti-Doping Organisation (ADO) with details of where they can be found for one hour every day. 
 
WADA Director General, Olivier Niggli, said: “We are very pleased that WADA’s launch of Athlete Central will dramatically improve and facilitate the athlete experience in complying with their whereabouts requirements. The new app will allow WADA and ADOs to better support clean athletes, who want to be able to compete on a level playing field. Since the inception of whereabouts rules, these rules have been modified and improved to make them more user-friendly and less intrusive while retaining their impact. Today, we can proudly say that we have gone one step further in WADA’s mission to lead a collaborative worldwide movement for doping free sport.”
 
To better understand the needs of its key beneficiaries – the athletes, Athlete Central was developed taking careful consideration of their feedback. WADA’s project team solicited athletes’ views and received 2,500 submissions that then shaped the app’s specifications. In addition, in the lead-up to today’s launch, some ADO staff tested the app and active athletes have been trialling it to file their whereabouts. WADA also provided a demo of Athlete Central to interested athletes and other participants of the Agency’s Fifth World Conference on Doping in Sport, which was held from 5th-7th November in Katowice (POL).
 
WADA Deputy Director, Standards & Harmonisation and Principal, ADAMS Advancement, Stuart Kemp, said: “This is a significant milestone in the ADAMS ‘Next Gen’ project and athlete feedback was paramount in delivering what we believe is a new, easy and secure way for athletes to provide their whereabouts. Features such as location-based address recommendations, dashboard, push notifications and Single Sign-On (SSO), will positively impact the way athletes provide whereabouts information, making it easier to comply anytime, anywhere. We hope Athlete Central meets athletes’ expectations and we look forward to delivering the next modules of ADAMS ‘Next Gen’ to the anti-doping community.
  
For more information, please:
visit the Athlete Central page of WADA’s website; and
view the making of ‘Athlete Central’ video