Clean Athletics - Anti-Doping Advice for Athletes
DOPING IN ATHLETICS: WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
You may already have the right athletics equipment, and you may also have solid training programmes in place to help push you forward in your athletics journey.
But what happens if you are taking any prohibited supplements? If you are, you could end up seriously hindering your progress and harm your athletics career altogether.
All athletes need to keep track of what medications they are using at all times. To help us understand what we need to be mindful of where supplements are concerned, Clean Athletics have written the below guide for us!
WHAT IS CLEAN ATHLETICS?
UKA’s Clean Athletics education and information programme protects the spirit of sport from being undermined by doping and establishes an environment that promotes and reinforces doping-free behaviour among participants, supporting athletes who wish to compete clean.
The Clean Athletics team work with athletes throughout their careers to educate and support them in building awareness of anti-doping processes, rules, and regulations. Athletes are also given individual support and attention to ensure they not only understand the requirements but are supported to demonstrate commitment and advocacy of the clean athletics message.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS IN YOUR BODY?
An athlete is solely responsible for any prohibited substance found in their body.
Strict Liability… regardless of whether or not there was an intention to cheat.
SUPPLEMENTS FOR ATHLETES
All athletes are advised to be vigilant in using any supplement. No guarantee can be given that any particular supplement is free from prohibited substances. An important principle of the Code is that of strict liability, which states that athletes are solely responsible for any banned substances they use, attempt to use or are found in their system regardless of how they got there and if there was an intention to cheat.
Before taking supplements, athletes must assess the need, risk and consequences of their careers.
WHAT IS INFORMED SPORT?
Informed Sport is a risk minimisation programme. However, it does not remove risk entirely. If you decide to use a supplement, you can reduce the risk by taking a supplement that has been subjected to appropriate testing and manufacturing controls rather than none at all.
Below is a flow chart that can help you in your decision-making process on using supplements:-
DOPING AND MEDICATION CONTROL
The use of medications could lead you to dope unintentionally – that is accidentally committing an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV). Medicines that are used in everyday life may contain prohibited substances. This includes medications prescribed by a GP and those bought over a counter at a pharmacy or ‘off the shelf’ from a supermarket. Examples include some cold and flu medicines and some asthma inhalers.
Before you take any medication, make sure it does not contain any prohibited substances. UKAD and its equivalents in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Japan have developed an online tool so athletes can check the status of their medication. This is called Global DRO.
Global DRO is based on the current WADA Prohibited List and provides users with information about the status of medications and their ingredients (that is, whether they are prohibited or not). Global DRO is ’mobile enabled’ by using Internet access on a mobile device, making it even easier for athletes to check the ingredients of medications before purchase and use. It is an athlete’s sole responsibility to be sure they are not using a prohibited drug, so they should always check using Global DRO before use.
USEFUL MEDICINE INFORMATION FOR ATHLETES
For further support and guidance on this topic, please take a look at the following pages.
CLEAN ATHLETICS - UKA
https://www.uka.org.uk/governance/clean-athletics/
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