Anti-Doping Administration and Management System
The Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) is software from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It serves for the internationally harmonized initiation and implementation of doping tests for top athletes.
functionality
WADA established ADAMS in 2005 for worldwide use.
For professional athletes, this means that they first create a profile for themselves which, in addition to information such as surname, first name, nationality and disabilities, contains the contact details. Then you have to enter the location descriptions and, most importantly, specify a location for each date in order to enable unannounced doping controls - the so-called system of “Athlete Whereabouts”.
The national anti-doping organizations that have committed themselves to the so-called WADA Code (WADC) can access ADAMS for the implementation of the anti-doping regulations. While the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) makes use of this option in Germany , in Switzerland and the Netherlands, for example, their own systems are used.
Four main tasks
The public reporting on ADAMS and the associated criticism of the reporting system is often based on the specification of whereabouts (“athlete whereabouts”) by the professionals who are required to report and their storage. However, the “athlete whereabouts” are only one aspect of ADAMS, because the web-based database management system takes on four main tasks in the international anti-doping fight . Its "primary functions" are named by WADA as follows:
- Athlete whereabouts
- Information clearinghouse
- Doping Control Platform
- TUE management
Specification and storage of whereabouts
Since 2005, the regular and planned “Athlete Wherabouts” of the athletes who are required to register have been entered and saved in a web-based calendar every quarter. Short-term changes or temporal deviations are also subject to notification. In Germany everyone who is assigned to the “Registered Testing Pool” (RTP) or the “National Test Pool” (NTP) of NADA receives personal access to ADAMS with corresponding user information. The obligation to register affects around 7,000 professional athletes (as of 2014) from different sports in this country. The reporting requirement applies in full to around 2000 RTP and NTP athletes. Those who are assigned to the “General Test Pool” (ATP), on the other hand, have to specify framework plans, but no “whereabouts”.
The controls are carried out at any intervals by external agencies commissioned by NADA in Germany. Their employees access the information stored in ADAMS for the purpose of planning and carrying out the controls. In principle, the professionals must be available for unannounced controls in training, in competition, but also in private life. The athletes bear the risk of an incorrect entry in the calendar. If someone is not available for a check, a "Missed Test" is recorded. If there are three “missed tests”, there is a risk of a ban of three months to two years. In this respect, it is irrelevant whether there is actually a doping violation.
The prerequisite for maintaining the calendar is currently online access and familiarity with Internet technologies, e.g. B. a web browser . Telephone calls or postal correspondence are not required for calendar maintenance. In the event of an emergency, you can also send a short notice via SMS . The software is regularly updated by WADA. Since December 2013, WADA has also provided a mobile app for entering whereabouts.
The other functions
In addition to maintaining the "Athlete Wherabouts", ADAMS has three other tasks:
In addition to the residence data, other sensitive, personal information is stored in a database. This is:
- Laboratory results,
- therapeutic use exemptions (so-called Therapeutic Use Exemptions -. TUE ) for the use of substances and methods (for the treatment of asthma, allergy, anomaly , etc.), according to the Prohibited List are (Prohibited List) strictly prohibited and
- anti-doping violations already detected.
The various national anti-doping organizations have access to this data stored in the “Information Clearinghouse”. In addition, a tool is available to the organizations for planning, executing and evaluating controls. The "Doping Control Platform" also serves to coordinate the controls across organizations in order to avoid "double" tests. Finally, ADAMS also uses the "TUE Management" to manage inquiries and notifications relating to medical exemption permits.
criticism
Because of technical and ethical inadequacies, concerns have been expressed about ADAMS from various quarters.
- The hockey player and athlete spokeswoman Marion Rodewald, for example, criticized the use of ADAMS as "not self-explanatory and very cumbersome to use".
- The former Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Peter Schaar , saw that the athletes' human dignity had not been respected and criticized the “complete residence control”, inadequate data protection and the “general suspicion” against athletes. "You are required to provide data that does not have to be disclosed to any other group of people in a comparable way."
- Table tennis player Timo Boll is also one of the critics of WADA's Adams reporting system. He thinks it is more practicable and more proportionate to locate athletes who are to be monitored by means of GPS : "I am not really concerned with protecting privacy." Any location can be determined with a smartphone anyway. That is why he sees GPS tracking as “... the better solution. (...) I would have no problem with that. "
NADA took up Boll's criticism: "We take such criticism, but also the constructive suggestions (...) very seriously." Therefore, they are now supporting a research project called "EVES" (now known as "PARADISE"), which was developed by the professional 400 m runner Jonas Plass was launched as part of his studies. In PARADISE (an official project of the gekko mbH funded by the Federal Ministry of Research , which was founded in 1994 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Society ), athletes voluntarily carry a GPS transmitter with them, which can track their whereabouts in the event of a doping test.
With the help of PARADISE, the organization and implementation of doping controls should be made easier and ADAMS should be supplemented in a meaningful way.
European Court of Human Rights
On January 18, 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg announced that ADAMS is in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights , thereby rejecting a complaint by French sports associations and dozens of professional athletes as well as various interest groups that are illegal in the system See invasion of privacy.
Web links
- National Anti-Doping Agency Germany (NADA)
- Together against doping for athletes (National Anti Doping Agency Germany, Department of Prevention)
Individual evidence
- ↑ ADAMS - Apple of Temptation (March 31, 2009)
- ↑ WHAT ARE ADAMS 'PRIMARY FUNCTIONS?
- ↑ Inaccurate criticism of the reporting system (March 5, 2009)
- ↑ NADA supports proposal for GPS positioning of athletes (September 25, 2014)
- ↑ a b Pamela Ruprecht: GPS transmitter from Jonas Plass: Alternative doping control system , project “Paradise”, from March 11, 2017, accessed January 3, 2018
- ↑ Pamela Ruprecht: Flash News of the Day - Anti-Doping Fight: Court of Justice strengthens reporting system for athletes ( memento of the original from January 21, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Notes, January 20, 2018, accessed January 21, 2018
- ↑ Harsh verdict for clean sport (January 19, 2018)
