On Side

While COVID-19 has shut down sport in Australia and around the world, ASADA’s CEO David Sharpe says our role in protecting sport is “more critical than ever”.

“There’s a lot of pressure on athletes and right now, more than ever, ASADA’s role is to look at the environment and ensure that we are still able to effectively protect the environment for the future of sport,” Sharpe says.

It’s important to understand that testing is only one component of what ASADA does to protect the integrity of sport, Sharpe says.

“It [our role] is multi-faceted,” he says. “At the moment, while testing has reduced, we still have the capacity to identify any significant threats or areas where we may need to conduct testing.

“We are constantly assessing and constantly replanning our testing missions and capability to be ready to go should there be a requirement.”

Our Chief Science Officer Dr Naomi Speers has helped lead ASADA’s COVID-19 response with the safety of athletes and our staff the “priority”, she says.

“Obviously there has been significant impact on our field operations and we’re really conscious of ensuring that athletes are kept safe with any testing we do and that our staff are kept safe and we’ve put in place process and procedures that will ensure that,” Dr Speers said.

We also answer a question from the public: “Why does ASADA keep samples for 10 years?”

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USADA CEO Travis Tygart has dealt with some of the biggest anti-doping cases in history, such as the scandals involving Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones.

Tygart says “nobody ever likes to have to hold a global icon accountable or take away five medals from a Marion Jones”.

“Those are tough moments and you wish those athletes hadn’t made the decision to cheat,” he says.

Despite receiving numerous death threats as a result, Tygart remains committed to clean, fair sport.

“Whether it’s an American or an Australian, if you cheat and break the rules, you should be held accountable and that’s the code that we’ve all agreed to.”

He’s very passionate about keeping the integrity in sport at all times and is not afraid to say what he thinks, always pointing to his “north star” - clean athletes.

Our Medical Officer Larissa Trease also answers a question from the public about the prohibited substance GW1516, why it is banned and the health risked associated; and we detail our suite of online education programs – from Level Two to Clean Sport 101 – that are tailored to all athletes from elite to grassroots. For more: https://elearning.asada.gov.au/

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Swimmer and three-time Olympic gold medallist Petria Thomas has a message for all athletes - “You don’t need to cheat to be good”.

Petria joins us on the Podcast this week to discuss the role anti-doping plays to ensure a level playing field and how the process has developed over time.

“It [testing] is a part of being an elite athlete,” she says. “It’s not just about enduring the testing, it’s about actually being an advocate for clean sport as well and really pushing the message out that you don’t need to cheat to be good.”

She also discusses her role on ASADA’s Athlete Advisory Group and the importance of athletes being able to have a voice in the anti-doping world.

“Athletes are the biggest stakeholder in sport. They have the most to lose if sport goes belly up so it’s really important that they have a seat at the table and are heard and their feedback is considered in the way that sport is developed and run into the future.”

ASADA’s Senior Education Officer Cheryl Kalthofen answers a question from the public regarding the best way is to educate junior athletes about anti-doping.

Complete Clean Sport 101 here: https://elearning.asada.gov.au/

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This episode focuses on an anti-doping education collaboration between the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ).

USADA’s Elite Education Manager Tammy Hanson says while there are a lot of similarities between the programs, collaborating and sharing resources was “invaluable”.

“We’re questioning everything that we do, pushing forward, making changes if they’re for the better and making sure we’re leaning on our resources - to collaborate, not to work in silos, but to share resources…” she says. “It enables the agencies to bounce ideas and discuss the best approaches and messaging for athletes.”

ASADA’s A/G Director of Education and Innovation Alexis Cooper says the challenge is capturing the attention of athletes, parents, coaches, and the sporting community through new technologies.

“Anti-doping is often not the most exciting thing that athletes want to talk about,” Cooper says. “They would often rather be training so what we do is use new technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, apps, those sorts of things to try to cut through and engage the audiences and get them interested.”

They both agreed that education is about building positive cultures, ensuring athletes understand how choosing to take performance enhancing drugs impacts them, their reputation and their country’s reputation.

“We’re not fighting a war on drugs, we are fighting a win-at-all-costs mentality,” Hanson says, “so anything that we can do to help them (athletes) really start thinking about the decisions that they make, that using a dietary supplement is a thought, it’s a decision; trusting a coach when they give you advice, that’s a decision that you’re making; not reporting doping or reporting it, that’s a decision…”

ASADA's Assistant Director of Operations also joins this episode providing an answer to the question "Are doping protocols the same everywhere?".

Support the show: https://www.sportintegrity.gov.au/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode focuses on an anti-doping education collaboration between the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ).

USADA’s Elite Education Manager Tammy Hanson says while there are a lot of similarities between the programs, collaborating and sharing resources was “invaluable”.

“We’re questioning everything that we do, pushing forward, making changes if they’re for the better and making sure we’re leaning on our resources - to collaborate, not to work in silos, but to share resources…” she says. “It enables the agencies to bounce ideas and discuss the best approaches and messaging for athletes.”

ASADA’s A/G Director of Education and Innovation Alexis Cooper says the challenge is capturing the attention of athletes, parents, coaches, and the sporting community through new technologies.

“Anti-doping is often not the most exciting thing that athletes want to talk about,” Cooper says. “They would often rather be training so what we do is use new technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, apps, those sorts of things to try to cut through and engage the audiences and get them interested.”

They both agreed that education is about building positive cultures, ensuring athletes understand how choosing to take performance enhancing drugs impacts them, their reputation and their country’s reputation.

“We’re not fighting a war on drugs, we are fighting a win-at-all-costs mentality,” Hanson says, “so anything that we can do to help them (athletes) really start thinking about the decisions that they make, that using a dietary supplement is a thought, it’s a decision; trusting a coach when they give you advice, that’s a decision that you’re making; not reporting doping or reporting it, that’s a decision…”

ASADA's Assistant Director of Operations also joins this episode providing an answer to the question "Are doping protocols the same everywhere?".

Welcome to Season 2 of On Side.

Today’s episode features 2008 and 2012 Paralympic cycling gold medallist Michael Gallagher.

Prior to the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, Gallagher tested positive for recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO) at a training camp in Italy. Still under sanction, Gallagher talks about the biggest impact his sanction had on him and what drove him to “cross a dark line”.

“It [sanction] is still something I think about regularly,” Gallagher says. “I took a long time to recover from it… [and did] a lot of self-reflecting.”

Gallagher is now a member of ASADA’s Athlete Advisory Group (AAG), which comprises a number of current and former athletes, including athletes who have lost medals to drug cheats.

“Sports a passionate thing, and people have the right to feel strongly about certain people’s decisions, but I think my story, and people meeting me in person, probably makes doping seem a lot less black and white,” he says. “That you can be a good person, an honest person, but head down the wrong way.”

Our athlete services officer Di Tucknott also answers a question about logging your whereabouts, along with our sports operations manager Steve Northey delivering a 'fast fact' about anti-doping tests conducted last financial year.

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Dr Susan White, an inaugural member of the very first Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) committee in Australia, last month celebrated 20 years on the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee (ASDMAC).   Dr White, who has been the committee chair for the past five years, has reviewed over 4,500 TUE applications and renewals. Recognised as a global expert and leader in the field of Anti-Doping Medicine, Dr White and her ASDMAC colleagues have developed processes that have been applied internationally and by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).   “ASMDAC was probably the first recognised TUE committee in the world,” she said.   The process has evolved over the year and become much more formalised over time, she added.   “An athlete, who is part of a sport that has a drug-testing program, should always check whatever medication they’re taking before they take it and check to see if is prohibited by WADA, if it is prohibited and there isn’t a reasonable an alternative, they need to apply for a TUE.”   A TUE is an exemption that allows an athlete to use, for therapeutic purposes only, an otherwise prohibited substance or method (of administering a substance).   In order to be granted a TUE, Dr White says an athlete needs to prove the following: · The prohibited substance or method is needed to treat a medical condition; · There will be no extra medical enhancement other than returning that athlete to normal health; · There is no permitted therapeutic alternative; and · The necessity for the use of the prohibited substance or method is not a consequence of the prior use of a prohibited substance or method prohibited.   She says ASDMAC approves approximately 200-300 a year for conditions ranging from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to arthritis.   Dr White has worked on five Olympic Games and three Paralympic Games in a variety of roles ranging from Team Physician to Medical Director for the International Medical Commission, Australian Olympic Commission and Swimming Australia.   “All of us (on the committee) still have an involvement in sport,” she says. “It’s very important that we have that understanding of what happens on the ground. It’s very good to see both sides of it, so you understand the process from beginning to end.”   Our science team also answers a question from our audience - Is caffeine prohibited in sport? – and provide you a fast fact about the strict liability principle.

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You’re never too young for anti-doping education!   That’s the view of Drug Free Sport NZ (DFSNZ) Education Manager Sian Clancy.   Sian believes the perfect time to ensure they develop as a clean athlete is when a person is developing the limbs and mindsets that will set them on the pathway to be an athlete.   We also learn how the similarities between Australian and New Zealand athletes have laid the platform for ASADA and DFSNZ to collaborate on their education programs. “For our messages to be aligned and for our approaches to be similar only strengthens clean sport of both our countries and hopefully internationally as well,” Sian explains.   We are also joined by Naomi Speers, ASADA’s chief science officer. Naomi explains the status of contraceptive medications and the importance of using GlobalDro to check your substances.

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In this episode of On Side, we speak to Andrew Collins, ASADA’s Chief Information Officer.   A self-confessed nerd, Andrew has always been interested in technology and loves pulling things apart. A university degree led him to Defence intelligence where he was introduced to the world of cyber security. Andrew was brought to ASADA to lead our digital transformation to a paperless organisation and to help protect our data, such as athletes’ records.   “We have to be prepared,” Collins says as ASADA exists in a global environment where it is exposed to large number of threats including state-sponsored threats. This preparation includes engaging in a number of partnerships with government organisations and corporate partners. “At the end of the day, together we are all stronger.” He says ASADA is very protective of the information that it holds. “At the end of the day we are entrusted to hold this information and we are very conscious that it is a position of trust.”   We also explore whether an athlete can leave a test session if they have to catch a flight and how to use the ASADA app.

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Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work at ASADA? We asked University of Canberra student John Vandermeide, who has finished a professional placement here with the science team, exactly that. “It’s definitely been very eye-opening because it is a very particular mix of science and kind of law-enforcement,” John says. “It’s definitely an amazing opportunity that I’ve had.” In his third year of an Applied Science in Forensic Studies degree, John recently undertook a 15-week professional placement as part of UC’s Memorandum of Understanding with ASADA. During his stint John was tasked with building a substance database for the anti-doping authority. “It’s definitely a new experience, something I have been happy I’ve been able to do,” he says. John leaves ASADA with an appreciation of the benefits of keeping sport clean and fair. “It’s been very interesting to see the other side of it….it is so important to make sure that the playing field is even and so there are no unfair advantages.”

Also joining the show this week is our Strategic Adviser Michael Harkins, who talks about why anti-doping is important and discusses his passion in sport. "Personally, I think doping robs the opportunity for someone to either stand on their rightful place on the podium or someone to miss their spot on a team," Michael says. "I still sort of pinch my self today that I am working at ASADA, it's a place I've wanted to work at for a long time and I have real passion for sport so to be able to work in sport, it's pretty special." We conclude by giving you a fun fact about our education sessions.

Support the show: https://www.sportintegrity.gov.au/

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