The latest edition of the IBU’s Registered Testing Pool of athletes liable for anti-doping testing will be officially announced on 1 May on the BIU website.

The RTP, which is updated every April, is designed to ensure that top-level athletes are available for testing at any time, reducing their ability to evade controls.

Athletes chosen for the pool must provide a home address, email, phone number and overnight accommodation details, along with training times and locations, competition schedules, and a daily 60-minute slot when they are available for testing. This is known as ‘‘Whereabouts’ information.

Importantly, athletes should be aware that failure to comply with these requirements (for example missing tests or failing to file whereabouts details correctly) can result in an Anti-Doping Rule Violation, often called a ‘Whereabouts Failure’.

So how are athletes chosen for the IBU’s RTP?

Athletes are selected based on criteria in the WADA International Standard for Testing & Investigation, such as ranking, performance changes and funding.

The IBU’s RTP is further selected based on a risk assessment that takes the following elements and risk categories into account:

·         Variance in performance (especially in skiing)

·         Known risks associated with each athlete’s nation

·         Any doping history

·         Intelligence

·         Data from athletes’ biological passports

All athletes, including those competing in World Cup, IBU Cup, Junior and Para-Biathlon competitions are assessed according to these criteria.

The result is an RTP made up of around 60 male and 60 female athletes.

The BIU exchanges information with National Anti-Doping Agencies to ensure that as many athletes as possible are covered by the IBU’s RTP, as well as those of the NADOs themselves.

Many NADOs also operate a secondary Testing Pool (TP) with less strict reporting for other elite athletes. This is often used for athletes before they join, or immediately after they leave, the top-tier RTP.

Participation in the RTP and the associated Whereabouts process helps ensure that all athletes in our sport are competing on a level playing field.