Thorkildsen supports whereabouts rule


The Norwegian Olympic javelin champion, Andreas Thorkildsen, supports the strict whereabout rule WADA introduced this year.

 

- It’s sad that it’s come to this, to catch a few you have to impose these rules on everybody. But it’s the price you have to pay to be a professional athlete. If you want to have a clean sport you have got to sacrifice something. And I don’t think that’s a very big sacrifice compared to other jobs, the Norwegian told the german news agency DPA during this traning camp in Doha.

Under the new regulations an athlete must give an one-hour window 365 days a year so that controllers can do out-of-competition tests.

As a Norwegian Thorkildsen har been used to this rule for quite some time as Norway has used this system.

- We have been notifying the anti-doping body about where I was every day. I have kind of gotten used to it, so it is not a big deal. I have a very good team around me, and my coach does the planning and says where I am each day. He goes online and lets them know I’m available for example from 7-8am every day, Thorkildsen explains.