EDUCATION IS ONE?OF?THE mightiest tools in the fight against doping.
That is according to Rob Koehler, the director of programme development at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who has insisted that testing is not the only method which can be used to keep athletes from using drugs.
He made the statements during a Press conference at the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) yesterday where it was announced that WADA, in collaboration with the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organization (RADO), would be hosting a two-day workshop on the island commencing today.
The workshop will feature 40 participants from 15 countries and will be headed by WADA manager of education Lea Cleret.
Flanked by RADO chairman Dr Adrian Lorde, Secretary General of the BOA Erskine Simmons, Maria Jose Pesce Cutri from WADA, and Tessa Chaderton Shaw, executive director of RADO, Koehler maintained that too often, too much attention was paid to testing athletes.
“I want to stress that testing is not the only way and the only thing that is needed.
“Detection is one method that also prevents the use of doping . . . but if we are really going to make a difference, then more increased attention needs to be placed on education,” he explained.
“I think we have dropped the ball globally on prevention through education, and more needs to be done.”
Lorde pointed out that RADO had been engaged in numerous programmes aimed at better educating athletes about the risks of doping.
He said that to date, RADO had been doing a lot of work with very limited resources.
“We have the office of an Executive Director who does everything, and the countries of the Caribbean have been able to utilize the facilities of RADO such as the educational materials that we produce and the doping control officers,” Lorde added.
“We are keeping up there and we are making sure that we maintain our compliance with WADA, and that our country is maintaining our compliance with WADA, which is very important in the world of anti-doping.”