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WORDS FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Greetings athletes!

When we started operations in April 2017, we made a promise to athletes that we will hold everyone including federations, officials and support personnel accountable to equally high standards of integrity that we expect of athletes. Two key developments in the last months of 2019 illustrate that we have stuck to the commitment we made to you.

Firstly, in September, acting upon a complaint against World Athletics Council Member Ahmad Al Kamali, of the United Arab Emirates, a candidate for the position of World Athletics Vice President, the AIU carried out an investigation on the eve of the World Athletics Congress in Doha. As a result, the Chair of the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal provisionally suspended Mr Kamali and he was declared ineligible to be a candidate at those elections.

Secondly, in November the AIU issued a notice of charge against several office bearers of the Russian Athletics Federation with serious breaches of the Anti-Doping Rules in connection with ‘whereabouts’ violations committed by high jumper Danil Lysenko following 15 months of investigation. At the time of writing, as a result of these charges, the entire Presidium of RusAF has resigned and the matter is before the World Athletics Council for resolution. 

These two instances underline that the Rules apply equally to everyone in athletics - whether athletes, Council members or federation presidents. We believe this is the best environment to ensure athlete rights are protected and our sport enjoys a reputation of upholding integrity.

On a different note, I was very thankful and pleased to see the top athletes in the world making a statement for integrity in athletics by engaging with our educational activities in Doha and subsequently during our workshops in Kenya and Ethiopia. 

The Athletics Integrity Hub in Doha exceeded expectations. Essentially this was due to athletes getting involved with the Hub, and showing their desire for a level playing field and a willingness to publicly state their commitment to fair play. We had two excellent workshops in Kenya and Ethiopia at the start of December which introduced the 2020 Road Running Integrity Programme. More details of both activities are given below.

Good luck to everyone in 2020. It’s going to be an exciting year with the high point being Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, with many other important global, continental and regional competitions also on the calendar. The AIU is open to receiving your thoughts and opinions about what we can do better to protect your rights, please feel free to reach out to us. 

David Howman - Chair of the Athletics Integrity Unit Board 

The AIU in November charged the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) with serious breaches of the Anti-Doping Rules, including a failure to cooperate with an investigation and obstructing an investigation relating to the ‘whereabouts’ violations committed by high jumper Danil Lysenko. A number of senior federation officials, including the RusAF President Dmitry Shlyakhtin, and Executive Director Alexander Parkin, the athlete and his coach, were also charged following a 15 month investigation which concluded that RusAF officials had been involved in the provision of false explanations and forged documents to the AIU in order to explain whereabouts failures by the athlete. 

The World Athletics Council immediately suspended the reinstatement process of RusAF and the 'Authorised Neutral Athlete' (ANA) mechanism pending the resolution of the charges. 

On 29 January 2020, the AIU Board, after reviewing the RusAF responses to the Notice of Charge, referred the matter to the World Athletics Council and recommended maintaining the suspension of the ANA process until the charges are finally determined and, if the charges are upheld, to consider imposing the severest possible consequences, including considering the expulsion of RusAF from the membership of World Athletics. Read the full press release here.

At the time of the publication of this newsletter, the entire Presidium of RusAF had resigned. The Russian Sports Ministry has suspended the accreditation of RusAF. World Athletics is in contact with the Sports Ministry and the Russian Olympic Committee to chart out a future course of action. 

The AIU hopes that our strong actions will help bring meaningful and lasting changes in the culture of Russian Athletics for the benefit of its athletes and all the athletes of the world. 

Separately, the AIU continues to work closely with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the separate case of manipulation of the Moscow Laboratory data, we continue to observe the status of RUSADA’s appeal to the Country of Arbitration in Sport and any possible ramifications relating to athletics.

In November, World Athletics announced that US$2.5 million has been made available for the 2020 Road Running Integrity Programme with contributions coming from 165 Label road races, Athlete Representatives (managers) and athletes (via a 1.5% levy on prize money). This was made possible due to a new funding scheme approved by the World Athletics Council's with a vision to bolster and protect the integrity of the highly lucrative road running discipline. Such private funding of integrity measures is unique, with few parallels especially amongst the Olympic sports, and serves to protect the future of the industry and the interests of professional runners.  

The dedicated programme includes greatly expanded out-of-competition testing of a pool of 300 professional road runners, intelligence and investigations, and education of athletes and support personnel. 

The AIU commenced the programme with two athlete-orientated seminars as part of the 2020 Road Running Integrity Programme in Kenya and Ethiopia in early December. The seminar in Eldoret, Kenya was held on 4 December in partnership with Athletics Kenya and was followed by a similar education initiative in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on 9-10 December with the partnership of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, and the Anti-Doping Agency of Ethiopia.

The education sessions were dedicated to World Athletics Platinum and Gold Label road runners – over 200 top runners from Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda attended the sessions. The athletes from the East African nations comprise about 85% of the top 300 male and female road runners. Besides the athletes, approximately 50 coaches and local managers also attended the sessions.

Check out the highlights of the education sessions in Kenya and Ethiopia.

"It’s a very positive move that the AIU has taken in coming to Kenya. It will help the athletes better understand that doping is not helping our sport, it is shortening careers, this is making us lose our moral values.

Education is every athletes right as well as responsibility. We need to do our bit as well."

Eliud Kipchoge - Rio 2016 Olympic Games marathon champion and marathon world record holder

In partnership with the Qatar Anti-Doping Commission (QADC), the AIU organised a joint education and prevention outreach programme - the Athletics Integrity Hub - during Doha 2019. The Hub was set up at all the team hotels to create awareness about the issues that impact on the integrity of athletics, especially doping and the various forms of competition manipulation as well as illegal betting.

Over 1400 athletes and support personnel from 165 Member Federations visited the Hub. The AIU also conducted a survey of athletes and support personnel to assess how they viewed the existing integrity standards in athletics generally, the perception of athletes towards their sport and how it related to their understanding of what is meant by integrity, and their expectations of the AIU and World Athletics. The AIU will release the survey results in the coming weeks through its social media channels.              

DO NOT assume that a Doping Control Officer (DCO) will contact you by phone or message before concluding a test attempt. 

A DCO usually will not contact you before concluding a test attempt. 

Providing complete 'whereabouts' information that allows a DCO to locate you for Testing without needing to contact you by phone is therefore important for all the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) athletes. 

This information sheet provides a handy guide with must-know practical tips on 'whereabouts'. Even if you think you know about 'whereabouts',  we recommend you spend a few minutes to go through this leaflet making sure you are fully aware of what you have to do and why it is crucial to follow the rules. Download the leaflet.

The 'whereabouts' rules are a key component of out-of-competition testing and require the RTP athletes to provide information to the AIU, including details of where they can be found for one hour every day. 

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) launched its Athlete Central application in November. This app helps athletes comply with the 'whereabouts' requirements. The app is available to 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 previous App that has been operational for a few years and required modernising.

If you haven't done so already, the AIU highly recommends to all athletes required to provide 'whereabouts' information that they download this app and upgrade from the previous WADA app.

To find out more watch the video below.

We would like to hear back from you. Your views will help us shape the education that we, along with our various partners, aspire to offer to you and your fellow athletes as well as your support personnel.

Thanks for reading! 

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is the independent body created by World Athletics that manages all integrity issues – both doping and non-doping – for the sport of athletics.

The remit of the AIU includes anti-doping, the pursuit of individuals engaged in age or competition results manipulation, investigating fraudulent behaviour with regards to transfers of allegiance, and detecting other misconduct including bribery and breaches of betting rules.

It is the AIU’s role to drive cheats out of our sport, and to do everything within its power to support honest athletes around the world who dedicate their lives to reaching their sporting goals through dedication and hard work.

Athletics Integrity Unit
1st Floor, 6 Quai Antoine 1er, MC 98007 Monaco

E: media@athleticsintegrity.org
T: +33 1 85 64 22 50