Athletes who test positive for prohibited drugs shouldn’t run away and retire but sports administrators should help them to get back on track.
Making it clear, she has no intention of excusing the use of banned drugs, new president of the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) Sandra Osborne, said schooling athletes is just as critical as preparing them for competition.
“Education of our athletes is equally important as technical training, as it is clear that we have to redouble our efforts in the critical area of anti-doping education in particular,” Osborne said as she delivered the welcome and feature address at the BOA’s annual awards ceremony at Hilton Barbados Resort on Wednesday night.
“While we do not condone any form of anti-doping rule violation, we must see it as our responsibility to put in place an effective programme to rehabilitate athletes who have been found to have committed such violations, so that they can be seamlessly reintegrated into their sport and not see retirement as the only option,” she stressed.
Only a week before the BOA’s ceremony, news broke that one of Barbados’ Olympic athletes, Levi Cadogan tested positive for the banned diuretic and masking agent furosemide and was facing a possible two-year ban.
Earlier this week, the National Anti-Doping Commission (NADC) also notified an experienced female athlete and a seasoned bodybuilder of positive tests. They are expected to meet with NADC officials shortly.
Osborne, who took over from the long-serving Steve Stoute as head of the BOA in late October, noted her vision is predicated on the recognition that the athletes must always be at the focal point of whatever ventures undertaken by administrators.
“We as sports administrators exist solely to support our athletes. As such, we must continuously strive to improve the environment in which our athletes can optimise their performance in clean and fair competition.
“We must continually educate our athletes and all members of the sport community on the values of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games movements and the ethical principles underpinning sport,” she stressed.
Osborne identified pertinent issues such as doping, match-fixing, betting and the abuse of athlete and athletes’ rights and obligations, welfare and safety.
“The voice of the athlete must be heard, and we must therefore expand the scope and reach of our athletes’ commission to transform it into an effective voice of this important demographic,” she said.
“Any high performance BOA-sponsored training must deliver value to our athletes. Their development obviously focuses on producing podium finishes and highly-ranked athletes.”
Osborne said her vision is to nurture an enviromment through training and education whereby the elite athletes and teams improved their regional and international rankings significantly.
She said her commitment is to continue to build the BOA into a National Olympic Committee that remains committed to the belief that sport has the power to transform lives.
“This means we must develop elite and emerging athletes while at the same time increasing our investment in sport for development,” she said.
Osborne revealed that the BOA intends to have discussions with all the associations in the Olympic movement and the athletes’ commission to understand their priorities as a antecedent to developing the new strategic plan for the BOA.
“We have created a Sport for Development Commission whose remit will be to drive our efforts within the scope of this important area.”
She also insisted that it was mandatory to invest in the country’s junior athletes.
“These are athletes of today and our leaders of tomorrow. Scope for development starts with our children and embraces all ages and all schools and communities,” she said. (EZS)