As I mentioned in a recent thread, I thought it might be interesting for you at the forum to learn a bit more about the Anti Doping System in Germany. A System that might be applied in similar way at your country, like Canada.
This thread serves purely as information and should not be abused to discuss the recent IOC / WADA situation. I also want to point out that this topic is very complex and exceptions of the rules provided will exist. The links provided are all safe, but not all are in English. This is just an overview and I try to not go too much into details, so that it remains a casual read for you. I am leaving the topic for medication out of this, as this is highly controversial and very medical.
NADA:
Let´s start with the most important organization in Germany, NADA. The "Nationale Anti Doping Agentur" serves as the head of the system in Germany.
www.nada.de/en
It also hosts the national anti doping codex, which is a summary of what is doping, who is responsible for forbidden substances and how the whole thing actually works. The codex can be viewed and downloaded below (it´s in German).
www.nada.de/fileadmin/-DOWNLOADS-/Regelwerke/NADA-Code_2015.pdf
To allow testing and give athletes a convenient procedure, ADAMS, a system provided by the WADA is used. (World Anti Doping Agency)
ADAMS:
If you look at ADAMS, then you need to look at it, as some huge database with information about athletes. Pretty much every athlete who is competing on international level, will be registered there. This applies to most Olympic sports,such as Weightlifting, Athletics, Biathlon and of course Figure Skating.
Depending on your standing as an athlete (national team, international competitor, amateur / professional ..) you need to give up parts of your privacy.
We do have three brackets (test pools) for this. ATP, NTP and RTP. We will focus on RTP, which is the highest tier you can be in. You don´t apply to these pools, but are assigned to them automatically, based on your sport and success.
RTP,
is the most strict bracket to be in. To be a part of it, your sport must be a "high risk sport", which means doping is "very likely" in said.
Every professional athlete of said group (athletics, Weightlifting, Biathlon...) must submit what we call the "one hour rule".
Said rule says, that each athlete must have one hour a day where he or she guarantees their availability for a potential doping test. Most athletes will use their daily practice routine for this, but also competitions can serve the need for the hour.
Figure Skating (Eiskunstlauf), is not part of the high risk sport, as it´s just in group three.
https://www.nada.de/fileadmin/user_upload/nada/DKS/160729_UEbersicht_Risikogruppen.pdf
That being said, if you compete on international level, such as Bruno Massot & Aljona Savchenko, a secondary requirement for RTP applies. Said requirement is, that you will automatically be a part of said pool, if you are already in the pool of an international organization, such as the ISU. (ISU TP, ISU RTP) Or if you compete at major international events, such as Worlds, Olympics...
The ISU itself provides the following standards...
http://www.isu.org/docman-documents...524-isu-testing-pools-pyramid-approach-1/file
Here you can find the athletes for the current season,
http://www.isu.org/docman-documents...ng-pool/12521-isu-testing-pool-2017-18-1/file
http://www.isu.org/docman-documents...23-isu-registered-testing-pool-2017-18-1/file
As you can see, there are a huge amount of Russians in the registered testing pool, something I just want to mention here, by pointing out that this is the toughest pool to be in, the pool with the highest demands by the ISU!
Now you may think, well one hour a day, doesn´t seem like a lot, but just think about it. Each day, you have to give up one hour of freedom, an hour in which you must be available. If someone knocks on your door and you are not there, you have a problem. So even just staying at home, not going to practice because you might feel not well, could lead to some serious consequences and why you must keep everything always up to date.
The WADA supplies an international system for the athletes to maintain their "private information" for potential checks. We in Germany use said system, just like other nations do (Canada, USA, France...). (ADAMS – Anti Doping Administration Management System)
https://adams.wada-ama.org/adams/
On said website, you must supply a phone number, valid mail address and a lot of data like the "one hour rule" and your whereabouts. Whereabouts, are the second criteria for athletes in the Registered Testing Pool.
Whereabouts are like a daily schedule, look at it as your timetable from school. You need to supply information about what you do every day, every hour for the next three months. There are some very strict deadlines for each quarter of the year. The information can and must be reviewed at any time by the athlete himself or someone who is managing the athlete (an agent).
There are videos on YT about this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmTpHy9oJc8
This is directly from the WADA. It is a bit outdated and doesn´t go too much into detail, but at least you can see how it looks like.
It is important to note that if you fail to be at a specific place, a strike is a possible consequence to that. On your third strike within 12 months, you will be banned for up to two years. Therefore, you need to keep the ADAMS database up to date.
This includes which flights you take, which hotels you sleep in, where your practice locations are, which running track you take or even your university lessons and visits at the barber shop. This might explain to you, why athletes can´t always stay for very long and often are in a hurry. Most professional athletes already factor in interviews and time with fans, so they have a bit more time to spent.
You also need to provide information if you just hang out with friends. If they invite you to a party, then you must inform ADAMS in advance, about the exact address. It can be quite tiresome to always ask your friends where exactly that barbecue party will be at, but it is necessary, especially for athletes at the RTP.
Lower Tier testpools such as the ATP are more lenient about that, here you tend to just need to supply some overall information (your daily routines) and don´t need to join ADAMS. It is important to note, that there is also a 4th testpool, which is used for team sports. As a member of said, three athletes from the team are usually tested together.
If we talk about tests, then there are two main procedures, Blood and Pee. Blood seems like the lesser evil, but try to pee when someone keeps an eye on you. That is awkward! Those who take the samples are asked to never let the athlete out of their sight and they will monitor exactly what you do prior to the test, not that you are given a clean sample by someone.
Anyways, with ADAMS in place, your life is pretty much structured and there is not much room for surprise parties and changes in your life, as everything needs to be typed down immediately and you must be available on your phone 24/7. Athletes are actually encouraged to never turn their phone off and yes, you even need to sign up funerals, but it is very unlikely to be checked there unless the WADA demands this from it´s testers.
This can be quite tricky and you as an athlete must be aware of that at all times and you are the one responsible too! Just imagine you said you are at home from Sunday – Monday, but missed that last train. If you don´t update this at ADAMS and the person who wants to test you, checks on you Monday morning, you are screwed.
You then of course need to provide prove as of why you missed the train, like posting a picture of you at the train station with a clock in the background and a newspaper in your hands. Yes, it is as paranoid as it sounds like.
Medication & Nutrition
Now, there is of course also the requirement to watch your nutrition and medication as an athlete. You can not just buy food at the street, or pick everything at the supermarket. You actually need to double check everything you eat. Since this can be quite overwhelming for an athlete, the NADA provides two helpful tools.
https://www.koelnerliste.com/produkt-datenbank/
At this website, you can type down things like energy bars, shakes and the like and check if they are "safe". Safe, is a relative term however, as there is never a 100% risk free scenario (legal reasons).
Another website for medication is "Nadamed"
https://www.nada.de/en/nc/medicine/nadamed-medicine-database/database/
Here you just type in the name of your medication and it will show you when you can use it, in competition and / or in practice. There are always exceptions for medication, they do require a signed document by a doctor and will then be discussed internally by NADA officials. You can test the system by typing in "Ibuflam" a painkiller and treatment by infections.
Overall,
you can see that being a professional athlete, is much more than just driving to practice and having competitions. Your whole life must be tailored around being an athlete. Your social life will suffer and it can become quite costly to be sloppy, either about your food or your whereabouts.
It´s also important to say that not all national anti doping agency's have such high standards, for instance at Jamaica, taking blood samples was a no go for many years and might still be done very seldom, same applies for checks during practice. Overall, African nations or the "smaller Islands" have nothing like the strict Systems in Canada or Germany and that´s why most cheaters do come from there.
If we look at the bigger picture here, then we will see three problems.
1. Not all national anti doping agency's are reliable and run tests sufficiently. In Germany 12500 test are the goal each year, of round about 7-8 thousand athletes, with those inside RTP being the high priority. Other nations might not even run 1000 tests or leave their best athletes out.
2. Not all international sports associations are reliable and might cover up their stars.
3. Not every type of doping is known and listed at the prohibited substances list by WADA.
As I said, it is very complex, so this is just an introduction for those interested.
This thread serves purely as information and should not be abused to discuss the recent IOC / WADA situation. I also want to point out that this topic is very complex and exceptions of the rules provided will exist. The links provided are all safe, but not all are in English. This is just an overview and I try to not go too much into details, so that it remains a casual read for you. I am leaving the topic for medication out of this, as this is highly controversial and very medical.
NADA:
Let´s start with the most important organization in Germany, NADA. The "Nationale Anti Doping Agentur" serves as the head of the system in Germany.
www.nada.de/en
It also hosts the national anti doping codex, which is a summary of what is doping, who is responsible for forbidden substances and how the whole thing actually works. The codex can be viewed and downloaded below (it´s in German).
www.nada.de/fileadmin/-DOWNLOADS-/Regelwerke/NADA-Code_2015.pdf
To allow testing and give athletes a convenient procedure, ADAMS, a system provided by the WADA is used. (World Anti Doping Agency)
ADAMS:
If you look at ADAMS, then you need to look at it, as some huge database with information about athletes. Pretty much every athlete who is competing on international level, will be registered there. This applies to most Olympic sports,such as Weightlifting, Athletics, Biathlon and of course Figure Skating.
Depending on your standing as an athlete (national team, international competitor, amateur / professional ..) you need to give up parts of your privacy.
We do have three brackets (test pools) for this. ATP, NTP and RTP. We will focus on RTP, which is the highest tier you can be in. You don´t apply to these pools, but are assigned to them automatically, based on your sport and success.
RTP,
is the most strict bracket to be in. To be a part of it, your sport must be a "high risk sport", which means doping is "very likely" in said.
Every professional athlete of said group (athletics, Weightlifting, Biathlon...) must submit what we call the "one hour rule".
Said rule says, that each athlete must have one hour a day where he or she guarantees their availability for a potential doping test. Most athletes will use their daily practice routine for this, but also competitions can serve the need for the hour.
Figure Skating (Eiskunstlauf), is not part of the high risk sport, as it´s just in group three.
https://www.nada.de/fileadmin/user_upload/nada/DKS/160729_UEbersicht_Risikogruppen.pdf
That being said, if you compete on international level, such as Bruno Massot & Aljona Savchenko, a secondary requirement for RTP applies. Said requirement is, that you will automatically be a part of said pool, if you are already in the pool of an international organization, such as the ISU. (ISU TP, ISU RTP) Or if you compete at major international events, such as Worlds, Olympics...
The ISU itself provides the following standards...
http://www.isu.org/docman-documents...524-isu-testing-pools-pyramid-approach-1/file
Here you can find the athletes for the current season,
http://www.isu.org/docman-documents...ng-pool/12521-isu-testing-pool-2017-18-1/file
http://www.isu.org/docman-documents...23-isu-registered-testing-pool-2017-18-1/file
As you can see, there are a huge amount of Russians in the registered testing pool, something I just want to mention here, by pointing out that this is the toughest pool to be in, the pool with the highest demands by the ISU!
Now you may think, well one hour a day, doesn´t seem like a lot, but just think about it. Each day, you have to give up one hour of freedom, an hour in which you must be available. If someone knocks on your door and you are not there, you have a problem. So even just staying at home, not going to practice because you might feel not well, could lead to some serious consequences and why you must keep everything always up to date.
The WADA supplies an international system for the athletes to maintain their "private information" for potential checks. We in Germany use said system, just like other nations do (Canada, USA, France...). (ADAMS – Anti Doping Administration Management System)
https://adams.wada-ama.org/adams/
On said website, you must supply a phone number, valid mail address and a lot of data like the "one hour rule" and your whereabouts. Whereabouts, are the second criteria for athletes in the Registered Testing Pool.
Whereabouts are like a daily schedule, look at it as your timetable from school. You need to supply information about what you do every day, every hour for the next three months. There are some very strict deadlines for each quarter of the year. The information can and must be reviewed at any time by the athlete himself or someone who is managing the athlete (an agent).
There are videos on YT about this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmTpHy9oJc8
This is directly from the WADA. It is a bit outdated and doesn´t go too much into detail, but at least you can see how it looks like.
It is important to note that if you fail to be at a specific place, a strike is a possible consequence to that. On your third strike within 12 months, you will be banned for up to two years. Therefore, you need to keep the ADAMS database up to date.
This includes which flights you take, which hotels you sleep in, where your practice locations are, which running track you take or even your university lessons and visits at the barber shop. This might explain to you, why athletes can´t always stay for very long and often are in a hurry. Most professional athletes already factor in interviews and time with fans, so they have a bit more time to spent.
You also need to provide information if you just hang out with friends. If they invite you to a party, then you must inform ADAMS in advance, about the exact address. It can be quite tiresome to always ask your friends where exactly that barbecue party will be at, but it is necessary, especially for athletes at the RTP.
Lower Tier testpools such as the ATP are more lenient about that, here you tend to just need to supply some overall information (your daily routines) and don´t need to join ADAMS. It is important to note, that there is also a 4th testpool, which is used for team sports. As a member of said, three athletes from the team are usually tested together.
If we talk about tests, then there are two main procedures, Blood and Pee. Blood seems like the lesser evil, but try to pee when someone keeps an eye on you. That is awkward! Those who take the samples are asked to never let the athlete out of their sight and they will monitor exactly what you do prior to the test, not that you are given a clean sample by someone.
Anyways, with ADAMS in place, your life is pretty much structured and there is not much room for surprise parties and changes in your life, as everything needs to be typed down immediately and you must be available on your phone 24/7. Athletes are actually encouraged to never turn their phone off and yes, you even need to sign up funerals, but it is very unlikely to be checked there unless the WADA demands this from it´s testers.
This can be quite tricky and you as an athlete must be aware of that at all times and you are the one responsible too! Just imagine you said you are at home from Sunday – Monday, but missed that last train. If you don´t update this at ADAMS and the person who wants to test you, checks on you Monday morning, you are screwed.
You then of course need to provide prove as of why you missed the train, like posting a picture of you at the train station with a clock in the background and a newspaper in your hands. Yes, it is as paranoid as it sounds like.
Medication & Nutrition
Now, there is of course also the requirement to watch your nutrition and medication as an athlete. You can not just buy food at the street, or pick everything at the supermarket. You actually need to double check everything you eat. Since this can be quite overwhelming for an athlete, the NADA provides two helpful tools.
https://www.koelnerliste.com/produkt-datenbank/
At this website, you can type down things like energy bars, shakes and the like and check if they are "safe". Safe, is a relative term however, as there is never a 100% risk free scenario (legal reasons).
Another website for medication is "Nadamed"
https://www.nada.de/en/nc/medicine/nadamed-medicine-database/database/
Here you just type in the name of your medication and it will show you when you can use it, in competition and / or in practice. There are always exceptions for medication, they do require a signed document by a doctor and will then be discussed internally by NADA officials. You can test the system by typing in "Ibuflam" a painkiller and treatment by infections.
Overall,
you can see that being a professional athlete, is much more than just driving to practice and having competitions. Your whole life must be tailored around being an athlete. Your social life will suffer and it can become quite costly to be sloppy, either about your food or your whereabouts.
It´s also important to say that not all national anti doping agency's have such high standards, for instance at Jamaica, taking blood samples was a no go for many years and might still be done very seldom, same applies for checks during practice. Overall, African nations or the "smaller Islands" have nothing like the strict Systems in Canada or Germany and that´s why most cheaters do come from there.
If we look at the bigger picture here, then we will see three problems.
1. Not all national anti doping agency's are reliable and run tests sufficiently. In Germany 12500 test are the goal each year, of round about 7-8 thousand athletes, with those inside RTP being the high priority. Other nations might not even run 1000 tests or leave their best athletes out.
2. Not all international sports associations are reliable and might cover up their stars.
3. Not every type of doping is known and listed at the prohibited substances list by WADA.
As I said, it is very complex, so this is just an introduction for those interested.
