The whereabouts system used in anti-doping was validated on Thursday in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after Jeannie Longo and a number of other French athletes brought a case arguing that the system infringed on their freedoms.
Longo, a retired multiple world champion who was cleared of a whereabouts violation in 2011, was one of two applicants in the case, the other being a group of national sporting unions representing French footballers, basketball players, and rugby players.
Together they claimed that the whereabouts system, the fulcrum of out-of-competition drugs testing, constituted a violation of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers the ‘right to respect for private and family life’.
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The whereabouts system was introduced under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code in 2004 and requires athletes to file information about their location so that they may be reached by testers. With the WADA code revised and adopted by all Olympic sports in 2009, the whereabouts system was tightened and moved online, requiring athletes to keep it regularly updated and also indicate an hour-long slot each day when they are available for testing.
Longo and the others had previously appealed to the Conseil d’Etat, the supreme court in France, but saw their applications rejected, leading them to take their complaints to the ECHR. The group of unions lodged its application in 2011, while Longo did so in 2013, alleging that her inclusion in the French anti-doping agency’s target testing pool since 2008 constituted ‘a serious and repeated breach of privacy’.
The case was brought against the French state but the potential consequences extended far beyond the country’s borders. A victory for Longo et al would have heavily undermined the WADA code, triggering similar appeals elsewhere and posing a major headache to anti-doping authorities globally.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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