At an event opened by the World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka, the agency’s Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) department focused on themes including confidential source recruitment and management, the global whistleblowing landscape and intelligence collection on the dark web.

Damien Larin, head of the Confidential Information Unit, said: "WADA was pleased to host the first in-person meeting of the Sport Human Intelligence Network in Warsaw.

"Collaboration is key to any doping investigation.

"WADA I&I is confident that, via the Sport Human Intelligence Network, it is building a community of anti-doping source handlers, which will multiply anti-doping organisations’ collective intelligence gathering capabilities.

"Furthermore, by fostering exchanges between confidential source handlers, we believe that we will build better anti-doping casework."

SHIN originated from discussions held during a WADA Anti-Doping I&I Network meeting in 2019 and was officially founded in 2020.

Since then it has held two virtual meetings which have been followed by one partly attended in person and partly accessed online.

SHIN’s overarching objectives include creating a network of confidential source managers/handlers, establishing bilateral relationships for purposes of intelligence sharing and joint source operations, sharing best practices on confidential source handling, troubleshooting common source handling challenges, improving confidential source and operational security, identifying opportunities for proactive and strategic intelligence collection, and promoting the development of human intelligence among anti-doping stakeholders.

This latest meeting was attended by representatives from various members of SHIN - Anti-Doping Norway, the Athletics Integrity Unit, Finnish Center for Integrity in Sports, International Testing Agency, Japan Anti-Doping Agency, Japan Sports Council, National Anti-Doping Agency Austria, UK Anti-Doping and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Representatives of Leeds Beckett University, not a member of SHIN, were present in Warsaw as guests.

WADA also invited five National Anti-Doping Organisations to participate in the meeting - Anti-Doping Denmark, French Anti-Doping Agency, Korea Anti-Doping Agency, Polish Anti-Doping Agency and the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport.