ANTI-DOPING EXPLAINED

The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) is very clear in its stance against doping – athletes WILL be tested regularly. If a doping offence is detected the person involved WILL be punished. “The IOF declares that doping is prohibited and the provisions of the IOC Medical Code apply, subject to any necessary changes, to all persons and competitors under the jurisdiction of the IOF and its members.” (IOF Statutes, clause 3.1)

NATIONAL teams from 41 countries participated in the 2003 World Orienteering Championships held in Switzerland. Athletes from 13 different countries were tested under the IOF anti-doping protocol. All the results of tests carried out were negative. The testing program comprised a total of 36 tests, including tests for EPO. The analysis was performed by the IOC accredited laboratory (LAD) of the Institut Universitaire de Médecine Légale in Lausanne, Switzerland.

2004 World MTBO Championships in Victoria

When this event is conducted near Ballarat in October, an antidoping testing program will be conducted under the direction of the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA) and selected athletes will be tested. The program will be supervised by the IOF Anti-Doping Controller, Roger Aerts, who will attend the carnival. He will work closely with ASDA and with Dave Lotty who is the Anti-Doping Officer for Orienteering Australia.

What is Orienteering Australia (OA) doing about anti-doping?

Drug taking in sports has been an item of intense media interest recently. However, it’s probably not widely known that random testing has been conducted at many major Orienteering events in past years (e.g Easter 3-Days in both 2003 and 2004).

OA has recently drafted a new anti-doping policy document. President Bob McCreddin had this to say: “There is strong endorsement at the grass roots level for Orienteering to be drug-free and all Australian orienteers support every action of the IOF and ASDA in their implementation of rigorous anti-doping policies. We are all pleased to see the adoption of this latest, detailed policy meeting international standards. It’s the next step in the development of antidoping practices in Australian orienteering.

Orienteering Australia’s High Performance Team, with good support from the anti-doping agencies, provide Australia’s elite orienteers with training and advice on drug issues and ASDA has been discreetly testing at national events for many years. Orienteering

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Australia is committed to a drug-free sport and sincerely hopes that with this clear statement of policy, fairly explained and implemented, our elite athletes are being supported in their quest for excellent performances nationally and internationally.”

The Australian Orienteer asked Neville Bleakley - Orienteering ACT’s

anti-doping officer for the last five years - to give some insight into what measures have been taken in Orienteering to prevent drugtaking, how the measures are implemented, and some personal observations. Neville’s comments follow:

“Being Head Coach of an elite squad at ACTAS (ACT Academy of Sport), and being the anti-doping officer for Orienteering ACT could be perceived as a conflict of interest. However, I do my utmost not to be put in such a position. The first question readers might ask is: ‘Could I be drug tested?’ Who May be Tested? The answer is ‘not unless you are on OA’s published national senior list’ (which is a “registered testing pool” for out-of-competition testing), or you compete in the elite class of an event at which ASDA has decided to carry out in-competition testing’ – except if you live in the ACT. A New Policy. Orienteering Australia’s latest (draft) anti-doping policy – redrafted to comply with requirements of the new World AntiDoping Authority - applies to members, athletes, athlete support personnel, and employees and contractors of OA. However, there are many dimensions to this policy, of which athlete testing is but one. The new policy will be published in OA’s Operational Manual after it has been endorsed at the next OA Conference. In the meantime, drug testing continues under the existing policy (with some interim arrangements). ACT is Different. ACT is a special case for two reasons. First, all ACTAS athletes – irrespective of age – are eligible to be drug tested. So ACTAS juniors are eligible for testing, whereas normally juniors would be eligible for testing only when they decide to compete in an open-age event that ASDA has selected for testing. Second, the ACT government requires all athletes who represent ACT in senior competition to be eligible for testing, including members of the Canberra Cockatoos. I found the Cockies’ reaction to this was positive: “Well, at least it shows that the ACT Government recognizes us a fairdinkum sport”. I found the same reaction from ACT MTBO orienteers when I nominated them for testing. I think ACT is the only State that registers MTBO orienteers for testing. Also I think ACT is the only State/Territory to appoint an anti-doping officer for Orienteering. Drug Education. I am responsible for providing drug education. I don’t do it all myself – I get presenters from ASDA (free of charge). I try to make such sessions as attractive to athletes as I can, sometimes providing free tucker and the like. ACTAS athletes must attend an education session once every year, so – with the permission of ACTAS - I open up such sessions to the Cockies and to ACT MTBO orienteers as well. National Senior Squad. Jason McCrae, one of my fellow orienteering coaches at ACTAS, organized a similar drug education session for the national senior squad at the national training camp in Tasmania earlier this year. ASDA will go out of its way to support such initiatives by finding local presenters, free of charge. I think that it would be difficult for an elite athlete in any leading Australian sport to claim ignorance of anti-doping requirements these days. In any case, ignorance is no defence. Recreational Drugs. ACTAS has made efforts to counter problems in the use of recreational drugs too. Two years ago I was a member of a small group of ACTAS coaches who volunteered to undergo training provided by the Australian Federal Police psychologists and drug counsellors with the aim of discussing the use of recreational drugs

with their athletes in team talks and the like. I was astounded to find out what was going on in the ACT recreational drug scene. My first thought was that I was glad our children were now grown up. With some trepidation, I chose a farewell function for a member of the squad at a local football club to make my debut. In fact, the squad members were very happy to discuss the issue with me. I found the girls were especially savvy about the issue of drink spiking, but many of the boys were unaware of how vulnerable they were too. ACTAS believes that it has a responsibility to foster good citizenship in its athletes as well to help them achieve their athletic potential. It plays an important part in the development of elite orienteers in Australia as role models for younger orienteers. Selection Processes. How do athletes get selected for drug testing? For out-ofcompetition testing, frankly I do not know. But, once chosen, an athlete cannot but attend at the time and place required, once they receive the phone call from ASDA. Rob Preston asked recently “Has anyone else been selected for testing on their birthday?” For in-competition testing, ASDA obtains the start list from the organizer and arranges a selection on the morning of the event (having ascertained who is actually there). There is no cheating. Names are selected by picking cards arranged upside-down, usually on a convenient car bonnet, with relevant witnesses to the outcome. Athlete Contact Details. In the past, it was possible for athletes to avoid being tested out-of-competition by ‘going bush’ or taking extended holidays overseas, giving false contact details and the like. WADA rules changed all that. Now it is a listed athlete’s personal responsibility to advise their contact details to OA’s Anti-doping Officer (Dave Lotty) at regular intervals. Failure to do so constitutes an ‘anti-doping rule violation’, and is punishable under OA’s new antidoping legislation. Athletes’ Rights. Anti-doping legislation is not a one-way street. Athletes have rights, including the right to be informed, and the right to have someone accompany them when testing is taking place – to ensure that all the proper testing procedures are being enacted. Here’s what happens if you are an elite orienteer. You have just finished a race lasting two hours and might be feeling elated/ disappointed, but certainly tired. Someone from ASDA taps you on the shoulder when you stop in the chute and says you must give a sample. You have no choice but to obey. From there on, that person will accompany you wherever you go until your samples are sealed in the two bottles provided. They must actually observe you passing urine (as athletes have been known to carry another’s urine sample with them and pass it from a tube going down their arm). You drink copious amounts of water to try to ‘go’, but if it’s your first test nothing normally happens for hours later. Arrangements for the rest of the day often have to go ‘out the window’. If ASDA decides to test at a qualification event in the morning, those athletes chosen for testing might have their preparation for an afternoon final disrupted. Anti-doping officers keep in close contact with their ASDA counterparts to try to minimize those sorts of occurrences. Intimidating. Drug education seminars don’t just address the “do’s and don’ts” of doping - they try to prepare athletes for what will happen when they are tested, so it will not be too much of a shock to new elites. However, some will find testing quite intimidating. That’s the price any elite athlete must pay these days. Why? Why do we have to do all this? As in life generally, there are unscrupulous people who will exploit any weakness in systems and/or people, in order to gain an advantage. Possibly there are also those, scientifically-trained, who want to ‘beat the system’ for the thrill of doing it (think computer viruses). Certainly there are pressures on elite athletes to perform. As a coach, I know that different athletes respond to those pressures in quite different ways. Injuries and/or personal problems can tempt an athlete to go down a pathway that they would never normally contemplate. The temptation for a ‘quick fix, just this once’ can be overwhelming, especially if someone says ‘the others are doing it’ or ‘it’s quite safe – they’ve never caught anyone using that yet’. The barriers between total commitment and blind obsession can sometimes become quite blurred in the most talented. Clean, so far. The good news is that we’ve never had an Australian orienteer found positive to a doping offence, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve never had one who has tried. Orienteering Australia wants our sport to be known as one that fosters clean sporting competitions. Orienteering Australia accepts its responsibility to support those who are clean, and to punish those who are found to be cheating.”

Neville Bleakley