The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has announced the launch of its new app Athlete Center — the Agency’s new platform for managing whereabouts information.
This new platform, which replaces WADA’s current Athlete Central app, is a web app rather than a mobile app. This means athletes can access it anywhere—from any browser, any device, anywhere in the world—without needing to download anything.
Athlete Center was developed in partnership with our global IT partner Sword Group and has benefited from valuable input from athletes, athlete representatives, and Anti-Doping Organizations (ADOs).
The platform streamlines whereabouts management through improved workflows, enhanced collaboration, and a responsive experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Over the past few weeks, Athlete Center was tested by selected athletes, athlete representatives and ADOs, and the feedback gathered helped refine the platform ahead of today’s launch.
“WADA is grateful to all the athletes, athlete representatives, and ADOs who contributed to the design and pilot testing of Athlete Center,” said WADA’s Director of Digital Insights, Ndiate Chaya Ndiaye. “Your feedback was crucial in developing this new platform and will continue to play an important role in its evolution.”
“We also greatly appreciate the technical insight and hard work of our IT partner Sword Group, whose efforts helped us achieve the timely delivery of the new web app.
“We are excited to be delivering Athlete Center and are pleased to share that it is only the first step towards a single digital destination for athletes. We hope the new platform improves the athlete anti-doping experience and we look forward to progressively introducing additional resources, including Therapeutic Use Exemption information, anti-doping education, and more.”
“Sword is proud to support WADA in leading the collaborative worldwide movement for doping-free sport,” said Sword Group Business Unit Director, Philippe Charpier.
“The launch of Athlete Center marks an important milestone in our partnership, and we are delighted to have contributed our digital and technical expertise to delivering a modern, intuitive platform designed around the needs of athletes and the wider anti-doping community. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with WADA’s teams and driving further innovation together,” he added.
New features in Athlete Center
- Improved notification features
- Responsive design that works seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices
- Simplified workflows with improved navigation and an enhanced calendar
- Time zone management to support athletes travelling internationally
- Autofill functionality for addresses to reduce repetitive data entry
- New dashboards that help athlete representatives and whereabouts managers monitor submissions and compliance more efficiently
“I am glad to see the new Athlete Center up and running and am looking forward to hearing what I hope will be positive responses from athletes regarding the more intuitive and accessible platform,” said WADA Athlete Council Chair, Ryan Pini.
“Several members of the Athlete Council had the opportunity to contribute to the design and the testing of Athlete Center, and I appreciated that our feedback was actively sought and carefully considered throughout the process.
“Athletes were involved from the early stages right through to testing, and that ongoing collaboration was important. It made the process feel genuinely collaborative, and I think the end result is stronger because athletes were part of the journey from beginning to end.”
Transition to Athlete Center
To provide users with time to become familiar with the new platform, Athlete Center and Athlete Central will operate in parallel throughout the fourth quarter of 2026.
Athletes, ADOs, and other organizations can explore the new experience of Athlete Center while continuing to use Athlete Central.
However, the submission function in Athlete Center will only be activated at the end of November. This allows users to gain familiarity with the platform before submitting their whereabouts, while also leaving plenty of time for athletes to submit their 2027 first quarter whereabouts by the deadline of 1 January 2027.
According to WADA guidelines, “Q1 2027 whereabouts submissions must be made before 1 January 2027, or by the deadline specified by the Athlete’s whereabouts custodian, in accordance with Article 4.8.8.2 of the 2026 International Standard for Testing and Investigations.“
Also, for Q2 2027 and going forward, the deadline for submission will be according to 4.10.6.1 of the 2027 IST: “4.10.6.1 Athletes in a RTP shall submit their Whereabouts Filing by the 15th day of each month preceding the start of a calendar quarter (i.e.,15 December, 15 March, 15 June, and 15 September, respectively) or in exceptional cases where an Athlete is included into a RTP during the quarter, by the deadline set by the International Federation or NADO up to a maximum of 15 days.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), founded in 1999, oversees the World Anti-Doping Code, which standardises anti-doping rules across all sports and nations, while also focusing on research, education, and building anti-doping capacity to ensure athletes compete in a clean, doping-free environment.
