Whereabouts failures to incur €500 penalty under revised IBU Integrity Code

Athletes who miss a second Whereabouts out-of-competition anti-doping test will in future have to pay the Biathlon Integrity Unit €500, as a contribution towards the costs incurred by the BIU in processing that filing failure or missed test.

Moreover, in order to ensure payment, the liability for the payment will fall jointly and severally on both athletes and their national federations.

This pioneering new measure, which reinforces the importance of Whereabouts as the foundation of a credible anti-doping testing strategy, forms part of the revised International Biathlon Union Integrity Code which comes into force on 19 November 2021.

The only exception to the rule will be for athletes who commit a Whereabouts filing failure or miss a test for the first time, and who do not dispute the rule.

The BIU is implementing the revision to help offset the significant costs involved in dealing with Whereabouts failures. The financial contributions made by athletes and/or national federations will then be reinvested in doping prevention.

Involving national federations underlines the importance of the role that NFs play in Whereabouts by ensuring that they are invested in the system.

Greg McKenna, head of the Biathlon Integrity Unit, said: “Providing accurate and timely information on their Whereabouts, is an opportunity for our Athletes to contribute to a clean and safe sport. We believe Biathlon is one of the first sports to implement a financial penalty system for a filing failure or missed test. But, as a new season approaches, my message to our Athletes is: ‘Make sure your Whereabouts information is up to date. Don’t get caught out and have to pay €500 – or worse’.”

Note to Editors

The Biathlon Integrity Unit is an operationally independent and specialised unit of the International Biathlon Union. It was established in 2019 in order to ensure all of Biathlon’s stakeholders can have confidence that ethical issues in the sport will be addressed independently and expertly.

The reivsed IBU Integrity Code cam be found here: