{"id":1165,"date":"2019-07-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/five-reasons-why-doping-testing-has-been-made-easier-for-athletes-in-the-uk\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:32","slug":"five-reasons-why-doping-testing-has-been-made-easier-for-athletes-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/five-reasons-why-doping-testing-has-been-made-easier-for-athletes-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Reasons Why Doping Testing Has Been Made Easier for Athletes in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jul 04, 2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Five Reasons Why Doping Testing Has Been Made Easier for Athletes in the UK<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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David Walsh of the Clean Athletics department is instrumental in the nation\u2019s drive for clean competition.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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\u201cWhen I see an athlete, they\u2019ll smile, say \u2018hello\u2019, and their next words will often be: \u2018what have I done wrong?\u2019\u201d<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

The Leaders Performance Institute is speaking to David Walsh, Education Coordinator at Clean Athletics department of United Kingdom Athletics [UKA]. He is regular presence in the lives of athletes based at UKA training locations across the nation. Twice a week, for instance, he is based at their National Performance Institute at Loughborough as part of Clean Athletics\u2019 efforts to educate and inform around doping and testing procedures for athletes.<\/p>\n

Walsh\u2019s tone, tinged as it is with levity, suggests the athlete is not about to be hit with a ban. \u201cQuite often the athlete has done nothing wrong,\u201d he continues, \u201cbut I am happy to have that effect on them because it means they\u2019re more likely to be on top of things on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aim of the Clean Athletics department, as laid out in its strategy for athletes, is \u201cto provide athletes, coaches, and athlete support personnel with the necessary information and education to allow them to make their decisions informed decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

With British athletes assigned to a range of international registered, national registered, and domestic training pools, anti-doping testing is a feature of their daily lives and, whether it is supplement usage, medication or therapeutic use exemptions, the idea is that all stakeholders are forearmed and forewarned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not uncommon for someone to be tested 20 times a year at the top end,\u201d says Walsh. \u201cPeople who are competing will get selected both in competition and out of competition. Those athletes are then required to provide whereabouts information, which makes them easier to locate and to test.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such are the levels of administration and their necessarily strict implementation that all too often an athlete can fall foul of the regulations without even committing a doping violation.<\/p>\n

Walsh says: \u201cI get a large amount of pleasure from seeing people who are cheating being caught but what gives me less pleasure is seeing people who make a mistake unintentionally or who aren\u2019t great at admin. Our job is to give them the information they need to make those informed decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clean Athletics is making inroads and enjoys good relations with its athletes. Here are five reasons why.<\/p>\n

1. The brand is accessible<\/strong><\/p>\n

In January 2017, after years of searching for a suitable rebrand, the UKA Anti-Doping [UKAAD] department changed its name to the UKA Clean Athletics department. Why? On one hand it was to remove one of the confusing acronyms and on the other it was to change perceptions. \u201cWith UK Anti-Doping [UKAD] overseeing resource management and testing, we felt our role was more about support, guidance, and education rather than policing anti-doping,\u201d explains Walsh. \u201cBeing called \u2018anti-doping\u2019 came with negative perceptions and we wanted to change that. We also felt that by and large we spent the majority of our time with clean athletes who wanted to compete in a clean sport. We\u2019re not saying that sport is clean \u2013 evidence dictates that it is not \u2013 but the vast majority of our time is spent with clean athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Coach education has been prioritised<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UKA\u2019s coach education pathway includes a Clean Athletics module and each way it is taken by at least 25% of staff employed by UKA and the Home Nations. As Walsh, explains, Clean Athletics advocates that the module be made mandatory. \u201cWe\u2019ve been running the module for a number of years and it has been completed by around 800 coaches,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re aware of the constraints, with most coaches coming into the system voluntarily, so we don\u2019t want to make the qualifications too heavy but we\u2019re looking at including some CPD recognition. They would get a larger points weighting when their licence is renewed two or three years down the line. I\u2019m fairly adamant that we want to keep this free for coaches because my view is if we can educate one coach, we can potentially educate thousands of athletes throughout that coach\u2019s career.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Clean Athletics staff are seen as a part of the performance team<\/strong><\/p>\n

Walsh understands the importance of being visible. \u201cBack when I started the role,\u201d he tells us, \u201cwe had two big centres in Loughborough and Lee Valley and I used to visit each once a month. While that was useful, I definitely felt like an outsider, whereas now we cranked it up to twice a week at Loughborough and it feels different. Rather than approaching athletes to remind them of certain things it\u2019s often the other way around. They\u2019ll come to see me and we\u2019ll have a chat and they\u2019ll ask questions; they\u2019ll ask when they need to do some compulsory education and I feel like part of the team rather than just some guy nagging them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once a year an athlete will also attend a group session. \u201cWe try to fit around their plans and bring them into groups but instead of it being a classroom approach where we\u2019ll sit you down and talk at you, we felt it would be more appealing if we let them talk among themselves to cover all the subject matter and we\u2019ll just facilitate as they go and make sure everything is covered. They tend to be once a year for the athletes but they might be two or three times a week for me and our team of educators [a team of eight across the UK] because we need to be flexible in order to reach 300 or 400 athletes each year.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Senior athletes play a key role in messaging<\/strong><\/p>\n

The athletes are Clean Athletics\u2019 greatest advocates. \u201cWhenever we can we try to get peers speaking to each other,\u201d says Walsh. \u201cWe\u2019ll try to get to some of our age-group teams ahead of competitions and we try to use athletes to deliver the vast majority of that. Dina Asher-Smith has done a couple of sessions for us \u2013 one for a team of which she was actually a member \u2013 but she\u2019s so experienced within our system that it just made sense for her to talk to her teammates and it really encouraged their buy-in. You could see they were all switched on in the session.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Athletes are introduced to testing at a young age<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clean Athletics pledges to deliver a minimum of four Outreach Zones annually with the purpose of providing information to young athletes from Under 15, their support personnel, and families. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a Clean Athletics Outreach stand at the school championships in England, Scotland and Wales this year,\u201d Walsh reveals. \u201cThere will be freebies but people will be encouraged to take part in quizzes and ask questions; they can enhance their knowledge and increase their awareness that testing is out there. They could be tested themselves and we\u2019re making them aware that through making the right choices it\u2019s better \u2013 and easier \u2013 for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Want more insight from British Athletics? Try these for size:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have You Found the Areas Where Your Team Best Stands to Gain?<\/a><\/p>\n

How Great Britain\u2019s National Performance Centre Supports its Medal-Winning Strategy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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