A GROUP of Belgian athletes is mounting a legal challenge against the whereabouts rule for out-of-competition drug testing, a move that could undermine the work of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The athletes claim the rule, which requires them to notify testers of their whereabouts up to three months in advance so they can be located for doping controls, is an invasion of privacy.
If the case is successful in Belgium, it could be used as a precedent to challenge the ruling in other courts around the world.
"It could mobilise others to do the same," lawyer Kristof De Saedeleer said yesterday.
He represents a group of 65 football and volleyball players and cyclists and has filed the case with Belgium's Council of State high court, which could take up to six months to issue a ruling.
Out-of-competition doping tests have become essential to catch cheats since many illegal substances can become untraceable by the time the competition starts. To perform such tests, WADA needs to know at all times where and when athletes can be traced.
Invasion of privacy
Under the latest WADA code, athletes must specify one hour each day when and where they can be located for testing.
"It gives WADA a pass to invade the privacy of athletes," De Saedeleer said.
Under the rules, three missed tests or three warnings for failing to file whereabouts information within an 18-month period constitute a doping violation and can lead to athletes being banned.
The Belgian challenge uses privacy provisions within the Belgian constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe to challenge the system.
Although the athletes stress they do not object to out-of-competition doping, they claim the current system is far too invasive, forcing them even to pinpoint when they go to the movies.
WADA maintains the changes were made to make it easier for athletes to abide by the provisions, including limiting the mandatory location specification to one hour a day. WADA spokesman Frederic Donze said athletes can even update this through an email message.
De Saedeleer said the rule makes non-elite athletes, such as provincial volleyball club players in Belgium, as much a target as the biggest stars.
"They force it on to sports where there is a minimal history of doping, or none at all," he said. "It is not because there is one criminal in the village, that the whole village has to be jailed."
Donze said it was up to international sporting organisations to cast the testing net as wide as they deemed necessary and up to national anti-doping organisations to set up a specific testing pool.