Change of Plan Form

The Athlete Change of Plan Form (CPF) is one of the administrative tools employed by all anti-doping agencies that are signatories to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-mandated practices regarding out-of-competition doping tests. The CPF is employed in conjunction with the Athlete Location Form to verify the whereabouts of all athletes who may be subject to such testing from time to time.

When WADA was created in 1999, its mandate was to lead a worldwide battle against the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs in international sport; at the time, there was no comprehensive international anti-doping strategy or protocol in place. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had initiated doping testing at the Olympic Games beginning in 1976, with some member nations in the Olympic movement conducting out-of-competition testing, but the practices were not uniform.

In addition to developing technical protocols for the manner in which testing and the obtaining of bodily samples from athletes would be submitted for analysis, WADA established procedures for the administration of all tests, which would be enforced by its national anti-doping member organizations; the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the Australian Sports Drug Agency are two such national agencies.

Any athlete who is liable to be tested by the national agency will complete a Athlete Location Form at the beginning of the association with the testing process, which provides the agency with his or her comprehensive information concerning the training, educational, employment, competitive schedule, and planned vacations. The agency may then conduct out-of-competition testing within these parameters. It is a violation of all anti-doping codes for an athlete to fail to comply with the information set out in the Athlete Location Form; if an athlete is not at the location named in the Form when the agency seeks to conduct a doping test, the athlete is liable to be sanctioned.

The CPF provides the athlete and the agency with a measure of flexibility in the course of the period first prescribed by the data in the Athlete Location Form. The athlete may change any competitive, training, or residency information through the CPF, and so long as the form is completed correctly, the revised data becomes binding and operative for all parties.

see also Athlete Location Form; Out-of-competition testing; U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA); World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).