Bangkok, Thailand, March 19, 2023: Athletes bound for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in September have been urged to be fully conversant with WADA’s Anti-Doping Education and Learning (ADEL) platform.
Addressing delegates at the final session of the OCA/OS Athletes Forum, OCA Medical and Anti-Doping Committee member Gobinathan Nair advised Athletes’ Committees from the 43 National Olympic Committees to inform their athletes to be up-to-date with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s guidelines.
“Please work together with your National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) to ensure all athletes going to the Asian Games complete the ADEL e-learning module,” Gobi said.
“This is because the Anti-Doping Education and Learning platform will provide insight on all aspects of anti-doping. We want education to be the first experience of anti-doping for all athletes.
“We don’t want them to go to the Asian Games and for their first experience of anti-doping to be testing. It is better they are educated on the pitfalls of doping first,” he added.
Through its ADEL platform, WADA provides education and learning opportunities for athletes, coaches, parents, medical professionals and more. It can be accessed at https://adel.wada-ama.org/.
Talking about the Fight against Doping, Gobi struck a chord among delegates when he began by pointing out the slogan of the OCA “We place athletes at the heart of everything we do”. He posed the question: “If athletes are at the heart, what goes to the heart?”
Answering his rhetorical question, Gobi said: “You need blood in your heart. Good blood, blood with integrity and fair play, two key components every athlete must have in the fight against doping.”
His message was endorsed by Japanese Olympic weightlifter Rika Saito, who was part of the inter-active presentation.
“I was tested countless times when I was weightlifting. My message to all of you today is to go back home and tell your athletes to educate themselves on clean sport. Sport has the power to change societies, and I want sport to be clean,” said Saito, who finished sixth at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.