News

22/05/2023 00:00, In Blog / Club Notice Board /

We all have a role to play in keeping sport fair and clean. We are proud to reaffirm our commitment to clean sport by backing UK Anti-Doping’s (UKAD’s) Clean Sport Week campaign.

Clean Sport Week is UKAD’s national awareness week championing clean sport, education, and anti-doping initiatives with sports across the UK.

This year’s Clean Sport Week takes place on 22 – 26 May 2023. The theme is “Teamwork in Clean Sport”.

Athletes are central to the team, responsible for making sure they compete clean – it's their body, their responsibility. Coaches, doctors, medical staff, parents, and us as the National Governing Body for Athletics in Wales. We are all part of the team and play a vital role in supporting athletes. Collectively, we need to stay educated, inform athletes of their responsibilities, and create a positive culture that gives athletes confidence to win well, without doping.

In support of UKAD, we’re getting behind Clean Sport Week. We challenge all athletes, coaches, and athlete support personnel to show your team player credentials and work together with athletes to fulfil their anti-doping responsibilities.

We are also proud to be working with UKAD on the Assurance Framework, which National Governing Bodies must complete to show they are meeting their anti-doping responsibilities. As part of this, we’ve been creating an Education Strategy to support athletes early on in their career.

Chris Type, Head of Performance at Welsh Athletics shared:

“Clean Sport education plays a significant role within the performance pathway for all Welsh athletes. A tailored anti-doping learning curriculum is delivered across the National Development Programme with a comprehensive clean games programme that supports the preparation of elite athletes selected for major games. Clean sport remains a core focus for Welsh Athletics, and we are fully committed to ensuring the safe and fair competition environments for all involved in the sport.”

Adam Rattenbury, Lead Performance Physiotherapist & Athlete Services Manager said:

“It’s my role as a sports physiotherapist to help athletes understand their responsibilities for Clean Sport. It’s important that I have the knowledge myself to give confident advice to athletes, help inform them of their responsibilities such as complying with whereabouts, undertaking testing, and checking medications and supplements prior to taking them.

Part of my responsibility for Clean Sport is signposting athletes, coaches, and other health professionals to some of the clean sports tools, such as 100% me, inform sport and more.”

Lauren Evans, Commonwealth Games Heptathlete added:

“As an athlete it is my role that I understand what strict liability means, so whatever I put into my body is my responsibility.”

Joe Brier, Olympian and Commonwealth Games athlete also shared:

“As an athlete it’s down to me to educate myself on UKAD’s Anti-Doping Clean Sport Hub.”

We also encourage anyone in our sporting community that would like to learn more about anti-doping to sign up to UKAD’s Clean Sport Hub where there are free education courses for athletes, students, coaches and practitioners.

Follow @ukantidoping on social media to see a range of educational and exciting content throughout the week.

To find out more about UKAD’s Clean Sport Week initiative click here.