RUSADA recorded 23 new whereabouts failures in July, bringing the total since the beginning of the year to 152
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency RUSADA recorded 23 cases of athletes violating whereabouts requirements for doping testing during July 2026, bringing the total number of such recorded cases from January through the end of July to 152. The figure was published by TASS on August 7, citing RUSADA's press service. This is a separate category of anti-doping irregularities relating to the obligation of certain athletes to report their whereabouts accurately and on time and to be available for unannounced testing. Such a record does not in itself mean that an athlete tested positive for a prohibited substance, nor that the athlete automatically committed an anti-doping rule violation resulting in a suspension. Repeated failures within the prescribed period, however, can develop into a formal anti-doping rule violation and lead to a period of ineligibility.
According to data provided by RUSADA to TASS, 310 whereabouts failures were recorded during the whole of 2025. A year earlier, 282 such cases were recorded, compared with 242 in 2023 and 375 in 2022. This year's 152 cases in the first seven months therefore represent slightly less than half of the total number recorded in 2025, but comparison with the entire previous year does not provide enough information to conclude whether 2026 will end with an increase or a decrease. In the July statistics it published, RUSADA did not disclose the identities of the athletes, the sports they come from, or the individual breakdown between missed tests and filing failures. For that reason, the figure of 152 should be interpreted as the aggregate number of recorded whereabouts failures, not as the number of athletes who committed an anti-doping rule violation.
What a whereabouts failure actually means
The whereabouts reporting system is one of the key elements of unannounced doping testing. RUSADA states on its official website that athletes included in its testing pools must regularly provide whereabouts information and update it when their plans change. The obligations are stricter for athletes in the Registered Testing Pool: for every day, they must specify a 60-minute time slot between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. during which they guarantee that they will be at the declared location and available to a sample collection officer. In addition, they must report their overnight accommodation addresses, training schedules, competitions, travel and other regular activities that enable testing officers to conduct a test without prior notice.
The World Anti-Doping Agency WADA states in its guidance for the ADAMS system that whereabouts information for athletes in Registered Testing Pools is submitted quarterly. The system requires contact information, the location where the athlete will stay overnight each day, competition schedules and regular activities, as well as a daily one-hour availability window. The purpose of such a regime is not to restrict testing only to those 60 minutes. RUSADA explicitly explains that an athlete may also be tested outside the declared one-hour window, while the time slot serves as a period during which there must be a reliable opportunity for the testing officer to find the athlete at the stated address. Unannounced testing would be considerably less effective if anti-doping bodies depended on prior arrangements with the athlete or on telephone confirmation of the athlete's location immediately before arrival.
In practice, there are two basic types of failures that can be included in these statistics. The first is a filing failure involving whereabouts information, for example when a filing is not submitted on time, is incomplete or contains inaccurate information that prevents the athlete from being located. The second is a missed test, when the athlete is not at the location where they stated they would be available during the declared 60-minute time slot. RUSADA warns that athletes must update their information in ADAMS promptly if their schedule changes and that personal responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the filing rests with the athlete. An administrative error can therefore have serious sporting consequences even when it is not associated with a positive laboratory finding.
Three failures within 12 months can become an anti-doping rule violation
Under Article 2.4 of the current World Anti-Doping Code, any combination of three missed tests and/or whereabouts filing failures within a 12-month period by an athlete in a Registered Testing Pool constitutes an anti-doping rule violation. The key word is combination: all three cases do not have to involve the same type of failure. An athlete may, for example, have two whereabouts filing failures and one missed test, and if all the cases have been validly established within the same 12-month period, proceedings for a whereabouts violation may be initiated. A single individual failure, by contrast, is not the same as three established cases and does not in itself constitute a violation under Article 2.4.
It is also important that the 12-month period is not necessarily calculated according to the calendar year. The relevant period begins with the first failure taken into account for a possible case, after which it is determined whether another two valid failures were recorded within the following 12 months. For that reason, the annual total published by RUSADA is not the same as the number of athletes approaching the threshold of three failures. Without data on individual persons, it is impossible to determine how many of the 152 cases concern athletes with only one recorded failure, how many concern those with two, and how many might become subject to proceedings because of a third case. This is precisely why aggregate statistics must not be presented as statistics of positive tests or final doping rulings.
The current WADA Code provides for a period of ineligibility that is normally two years for a whereabouts violation, with the possibility of reduction to a minimum of one year depending on the athlete's degree of fault and the circumstances of the individual case. The final sanction does not arise automatically from a statistical record, but from the results management process and a determination of whether all elements of the alleged violation have been established under the applicable rules. The athlete has the right to provide an explanation and challenge the recording of an individual case. This distinguishes the initial recording of an irregularity, a formal charge of an anti-doping rule violation and a final decision imposing a sanction.
The number of whereabouts failures is not the number of positive doping findings
The distinction between whereabouts failures and a conventional positive finding is particularly important for understanding the July figures. In a separate report, also citing RUSADA, TASS reported that the Russian agency identified nine cases of possible anti-doping rule violations during July, while there were 50 such cases in the first seven months of 2026. For the whole of 2025, according to the same source, RUSADA recorded 109 cases of possible anti-doping rule violations. Those statistics cover a different set of proceedings and should not be added to the 152 cases of non-compliance with whereabouts requirements as though they formed a single category.
Public reports about doping often discuss positive laboratory findings, refusals to submit to testing, possession or use of prohibited substances, tampering with the process and whereabouts failures within the same discussion. Each of these categories has its own legal elements and standards of proof. A positive finding in a sample provides the analytical basis for one type of proceeding, while a whereabouts case can develop without any positive sample because it is based on a pattern of failing to fulfil reporting obligations or missing a test. Therefore, the statement that RUSADA recorded 152 whereabouts failures does not mean that 152 athletes failed a doping test, nor that the use of prohibited substances was established in 152 cases.
Unannounced testing is precisely why whereabouts rules are considered an important part of the global anti-doping system. If testing officers cannot find an athlete during a period when the athlete should be available, the ability to conduct targeted out-of-competition testing is weakened regardless of whether there is any suspicion at that moment of the use of a particular substance. WADA and national anti-doping organizations therefore treat the whereabouts system as a mechanism for preserving the unpredictability of testing. At the same time, the rules must leave room for examining the circumstances of each individual case because travel changes, filing errors or other events do not automatically have the same significance as deliberate avoidance of testing.
ADAMS enables continuous updating of information
ADAMS, or the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System, is the central digital system used by WADA to manage numerous parts of the anti-doping process. In its whereabouts module, athletes in Registered Testing Pools can enter and modify information used by anti-doping organizations to plan testing. WADA states in its official guidance that a filing includes a postal and email address, the daily location where the athlete will stay overnight, competitions, regular activities such as training or work, and a 60-minute window for each day of the quarter. The system is designed so that changes can be recorded whenever an athlete's schedule changes, thereby reducing the risk that outdated information will result in an unsuccessful testing attempt.
RUSADA additionally states that the information must be sufficiently precise for the testing officer to find the athlete without first contacting third parties. In practice, this means that a general location alone, such as the name of a large sports complex or a hotel without additional details, may be insufficient if the testing officer cannot reach the athlete on the basis of the filing. The agency also emphasizes that changes to the one-hour time slot must be entered before that time slot begins. Such rules seek to establish a balance between the flexibility of an athlete's schedule and the need for anti-doping control to remain unannounced and operationally feasible.
For elite athletes, particularly those who frequently travel between training camps, competitions and private commitments, the requirement to keep their whereabouts continuously updated represents an ongoing administrative obligation. However, a Registered Testing Pool is not a list of all athletes in a country, but a targeted group subject to an enhanced monitoring regime. RUSADA states that factors considered when including athletes in testing pools may include sporting results, candidacy for major competitions, previous anti-doping rule violations or other reasons why a particular athlete is important to the testing plan. A similar principle is applied by international sports federations in their own Registered Testing Pools.
The trend in previous years shows large fluctuations
RUSADA data reported by TASS show that the annual number of whereabouts failures has varied considerably over the past several years. After 375 cases in 2022, the number fell to 242 in 2023, then rose to 282 in 2024 and to 310 in 2025. The first seven months of 2026 produced 152 recorded cases. The number alone, without information about the size of the testing pools, the number of testing attempts, changes in the criteria for including athletes or the number of individuals with multiple failures, is not sufficient to reliably assess whether athletes' discipline in reporting whereabouts has improved or deteriorated.
Nevertheless, the multi-year data show that whereabouts reporting irregularities are not rare and constitute a persistent operational challenge for the anti-doping system. Their importance arises not only from the possibility of sanctions for an individual athlete, but also from the fact that reliable whereabouts information enables testing during periods when the athlete does not expect to be tested. Such out-of-competition tests can be important for detecting the use of prohibited methods or substances whose use may be deliberately timed to occur well before the competition itself.
RUSADA continues to operate in a sensitive international regulatory environment
The latest data on whereabouts requirements were published at a time when RUSADA's status within the global anti-doping system remains subject to international oversight. On June 10, 2026, following a meeting of its independent Compliance Review Committee, WADA listed the Russian national anti-doping organization among the signatories that continue to be considered non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code. That issue of institutional compliance is separate from the day-to-day implementation of testing and from individual athlete cases. At the same time, RUSADA states on its official websites that it conducts testing and results management programs and publishes rules and guidance for athletes included in testing pools.
What can currently be concluded from the 152 recorded cases
The figure of 152 whereabouts failures from January through July 2026 confirms that RUSADA continues to record a significant number of problems with timely and accurate reporting of athletes' whereabouts and with their availability for unannounced testing. At the same time, publicly available data do not make it possible to determine the number of athletes facing a formal sanction because RUSADA has not published names, the number of repeated failures per person or the final status of each recorded case. The 23 cases in July are therefore primarily an indicator of the operation of the whereabouts monitoring system, rather than evidence of 23 doping cases.
For athletes in Registered Testing Pools, the practical consequence remains clear: information in ADAMS must be complete, precise and up to date, and the athlete must be at the declared location during their daily 60-minute time slot. Three validly established missed tests and/or filing failures within 12 months can become a separate anti-doping rule violation regardless of whether there is a positive laboratory finding. It is precisely for this reason that anti-doping organizations consider the whereabouts requirement an integral part of a system intended to enable effective, targeted and unannounced testing throughout the year.
Sources:
- TASS – RUSADA data on 23 whereabouts failures in July, a total of 152 from January through July, and a comparison with the 2022–2025 period (link)
- RUSADA – official rules for testing pools, whereabouts reporting, the 60-minute time slot and procedures in the event of a missed test or filing failure (link)
- WADA ADAMS Help Center – official requirements for quarterly whereabouts filings and the information that athletes in Registered Testing Pools must enter in ADAMS (link)
- WADA – 2021 World Anti-Doping Code, including Article 2.4 on three missed tests and/or filing failures within 12 months and the rules on sanctions (link)
- TASS – separate RUSADA statistics on nine possible anti-doping rule violations in July and 50 in the first seven months of 2026 (link)
- WADA – announcement of the Compliance Review Committee of June 10, 2026, in which the Russian national anti-doping organization was listed among the currently non-compliant signatories (link)