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WADA publishes outcomes from its 2022 Global Education Conference; adds Conference presentations to ADEL

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The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is pleased to share the outcomes from its 2022 Global Education Conference, and announce that it has added numerous Conference presentations to its Anti-Doping Education and Learning Platform (ADEL). We would also like to share the GEC recap video produced by our gracious host, Sport Integrity Australia.

WADA President Witold Bańka highlighted in his keynote speech that education needs to become a central pillar of every Anti-Doping Organization’s clean sport strategy, and so we hope that by sharing these outcomes and resources, we facilitate the continuation of these conversations and efforts.

The following nine outcomes were identified under the three core themes of the Conference:

Innovation

  1. We strive to reach athletes from playground to podium with progressive and tailored education programs.
  2. We work collectively to elevate the knowledge and expertise of practitioners in all areas of anti-doping through education.
  3. We continue to implement the International Standard for Education in an innovative and creative manner while ensuring it is relatable to athletes and others.

Collaboration

  1. We agree that there is a shared responsibility to educate athletes and their support personnel.
  2. We encourage a balanced approach to anti-doping with a renewed focus on supporting athletes and preventing inadvertent anti-doping rule violations. 
  3. We strive to work together to ensure education programs are evidence informed and based on social science research.

Implementation

  1. We encourage clean sport behaviors, by educating athletes on what they must do and not just what they need to know.
  2. We engage athletes and promote values-based education to ensure that athletes start in sport clean and stay clean.
  3. We actively advocate for education and deliver through a variety of activities to ensure a continuum of learning.  

Once again, we would like to thank Sport Integrity Australia for hosting the Conference, and also thank our attendees and speakers—anti-doping practitioners and researchers from around the world—who came together to celebrate a new era in education. It is only through collective action that we can truly harness the value of education to prevent doping in sport. As Mr. Bańka said, our anti-doping efforts to ‘support and prevent’ are just as important as those to ‘catch and punish.’

To keep up the momentum of Clean Sport Education, WADA will be supporting three regional symposia in 2023, in South Africa (20-21 February), Argentina (28 February – 2 March) and Singapore (26-27 July). Details of these will be promoted within each region.

We look forward to seeing you all again at the GEC 2024 in France, with further details to follow shortly.