The World Anti-Doping Code is rewritten on a cycle, not amended line by line. The text that governs every Signatory from 1 January 2027 was approved on 5 December 2025, which leaves a gap of roughly a year between approval and effect. That gap is the whole practical story: a case opened under the 2021 Code is not automatically read under the 2027 one, and the rules that decide which text applies are themselves part of the Code.
The date that matters is not the date of approval
Approval settles the wording. Effect settles the law that applies to conduct. For an athlete, the question is rarely «what does the new Code say» and almost always «which Code is my case read under». The answer turns on when the anti-doping rule violation is asserted, not on when the sample was collected and not on when the hearing is held.
Three numbers worth copying down
- Sanction tiers of four, three and two years. The ladder is not a single figure with discretion around it. The tier is picked from the substance and from whether the violation was intentional, and only then is the period moved by the aggravating and mitigating provisions.
- Twenty-one days for a therapeutic use exemption decision. An athlete who needs a prohibited substance for a documented medical condition applies for a TUE, and the Code sets a deadline on the body that decides rather than leaving it open.
- The fifteenth of the month for quarterly whereabouts filing. Athletes in a registered testing pool file where they will be, quarter by quarter. The filing date moved to the 15th, which matters because a late filing is a filing failure, and filing failures count towards the three-in-twelve-months rule described in the entry on the whereabouts window.
Who the Code binds, and who merely acts for someone bound
The Code binds Signatories. It does not bind every organisation that collects a sample or runs a laboratory. Where a national anti-doping organisation hires a contractor to do the collecting, the contractor is a Delegated Third Party and the Signatory still answers for compliance. That distinction is set out separately in Signatory or Delegated Third Party, and it decides who is on the hook when a procedural step goes wrong.
What does not change
Strict liability survives the rewrite: a prohibited substance found in a sample is the athlete's responsibility whether or not intent is shown, and the absence of intent moves the length of the sanction rather than the finding. The appeal route also survives — a decision goes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and from there only to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court on the narrow grounds described in the entry on article 190.
The calendar to keep
- 5 December 2025 — the 2027 Code approved.
- 1 January 2027 — the 2027 Code applies.
- Between those dates — Signatories rewrite their own rules, and a national rule that still mirrors the 2021 text after the effective date is a compliance problem for the Signatory, handled under the compliance standard rather than as a sanction. That mechanism is in Non-compliance is not a sanction.
Where this is written: the World Anti-Doping Code and the International Standard for Therapeutic Use Exemptions, wada-ama.org/en/resources. Article numbers are given above so the text can be checked against the source rather than against this summary.