Should apps have anti-doping guidelines?
This is the problematic question that the people at activity tracking app Strava are having to ask themselves after the latest uproar over a popular user was charged with one misdemeanor count for shipping a vial of illegal, performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin.
The user Thorfinn Sassquatch, whose real name is Nick Brandt-Sorenson, holds more than 800 titles on the rather competitive app. Strava’s software is compatible with a number of different GPS devices, and it tracks a running or cycling session of a user.
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The results get placed on a leaderboard for each location, and with cycling there is a feature called “King of the Mountain,” which records the best times for a specific geographic route. Brandt-Sorenson rose to Strava fame by conquering many of the mountainous roads around Los Angeles, beating many in the very competitive digitally-connected cycling community of Southern California.
There are some serious bragging rights that come with being a King of the Mountain, and both casual cyclists everywhere and the Southern California cycling elite were angry at the revelation of Sassquatch’s use of performance enhancing drugs to best a cycling community that competes via an app.
Sadly, this is not the first time that Brandt-Sorenson has been disciplined for doping. In 2011, he won the Masters 30-34 road championship in Bend, Oregon. After claiming victory, his title was taken away from him after he tested positive for the drug Efoproxiral. This caused Brandt-Sorenson to quietly leave the sport behind him, until this past incident with the law and Strava jolted him back into the spotlight.
As apps begin to replace some formal competitions, this case is particularly interesting. Should companies protect their interests by creating some sort of code to keep competitions clean? Is it possible to police these sort of incidents where users are passionately competing via an app?
Those are the questions that Strava will have to consider now, and the answers may hold some insight into the future of how socially competitive sports and fitness apps are to be managed.