Surakarta, 18 July 2024
Prior to the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games which will be organized in Paris in 2024, IADO has continued to intensively carry out outreach and campaigns related to whereabouts. The activities carried out by IADO currently are very important for all athletes, especially as the preparation to the Olympic and Paralympic events take place through out-of-competition sample collection activities (OOCT). As a National Anti-Doping Organization, IADO carried out quite a tough task in educating and continuing to voice the urgency of filling in athletes’ whereabouts on the ADAMS website and/or the Athlete Central application.
In the midst of IADO’s intense efforts, surprising news emerged from badminton ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Mathias Christiansen, a talented badminton athlete, officially withdrew from the mixed doubles competition. This resignation was caused by an error in filling out the “whereabouts” form, because Christiansen made three mistakes regarding his existence. For the information, elite athletes are required to report where they live for the next three months. Failure to carry out three warnings in one year can result in an anti-doping violation.
Returning to the issue of socialization, IADO in collaboration with NPC Indonesia (National Paralympic Committee) moved quickly to carry out socialization and activate ADAMS accounts for athletes, which in this case was carried out by the Testing Directorate represented by Mr. Rifaldi. That activity was attended by 34 athletes, 14 coaches and 4 athlete support personnel, the majority of whom were part of the National Paralympic Training and RTP / TP IADO. The event was held on July 18th, 2024 at the Kusuma Sahid Prince Hotel, Surakarta, Central Java.
The event started with singing Indonesia Raya, followed then by an agenda of presenting whereabouts, activating athletes’ ADAMS accounts, and filling in whereabouts. The athletes listened to the explanation regarding the urgency of whereabouts and the procedures for filling it out as well as the explanation of doping violations and the consequences of doping carefully. The athletes had also succeeded in filling in their whereabouts before leaving for the Paralympic Games. The enthusiasm of the NPC athletes was not broken even though the workshop was held during training breaks. The activity was filled with active discussions and questions and answers due to the high enthusiasm of the NPC athletes.