Scottish Rugby backs third UK anti-doping Clean Sport Week

This year’s campaign, which will again have the support of a range of National Governing Bodies (NGBs), sports organisations and UK sports stars, will celebrate clean athletes and their success, and promote the work of the anti-doping community in the fight for clean sport.

The campaign will also have a strong focus on Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs (IPEDs), and particularly the attitudes towards, and motivations for use of, IPEDs in the gym environment. New research is set to be revealed during the week to encourage a wider public debate on the issue.

Scottish Rugby is committed to ensuring high performance players are educated on this topic. So far 12 workshops have been delivered this season to Academy players, National Squads and Professional Teams – educating 413 players in total. These workshops covered two topics; 100% me and Clean Sport.

The 100% me workshop looks to educate players on the values within Clean Sport, how players promote themselves within rugby and how to protect themselves. It discusses moral dilemmas a player may find themselves in and how to make correct decisions.

Clean Sport looks more in depth at the topics within anti-doping. This includes the testing process, players rights and responsibilities during this process, websites to check for medications and supplements as well as sanctions and violations a player may face.

The courses are run by members of the Scottish Rugby medical team and both workshops highlight the importance of a ‘food first’ approach to diet as well as educating the players on strict liability.

“Players understanding the role they play in promoting clean sport is massively important. Through our education workshops, we are able to provide our players with the relevant information, allowing them to feel confident in making well informed choices. It’s about the players being able to say it’s 100% me.”
Richard Wood, Scottish Rugby Medical Services Manager

Scottish Futures U18 player, Rosa Cobban said, “It is so important that we as athletes display the values of clean sport. We need to ensure that these help us make the game as fair as possible, to be able to make the game more enjoyable.

“We have taken part in two workshops this season on Clean Sport. One was right at the start of the season as an introduction to the topic, where we learnt about the clean sport values and the websites where we can check what medicines are ok to take. We then had a follow up workshop to make sure that the content was still fresh in our minds.”

Fellow Scottish Futures U18 player, Kaylee Fraser explained how the anti-doping resources, such as the Global Drug Reference Online (DRO) website have helped her, “It allowed me to double check the medicine that I take so that there was no second guessing.

“The workshops allowed me to think about the topic as a whole and make sure that I was doing right for the sport to be able to go on further.”
Kaylee Fraser

A number of events will take place between 20-26 May to help raise awareness of clean sport and anti-doping programmes led by UKAD, NGBs and sporting bodies across the UK. The campaign will also feature social media videos from a number of UK athletes showing their support for clean sport, through a series called ‘Feat of Strength’.

Nicole Sapstead, UKAD’s Chief Executive, said: “This year’s Clean Sport Week focuses on Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs (IPEDs), particularly in the gym environment.

“Following a number of media reports in recent months, concerns are growing around the use of IPEDs in this area, particularly with trends like the ‘Love Island look’, and the possibility of this seeping into the sporting arena.

“Last year’s Clean Sport Week was a huge success and we hope this year’s event can drive the debate around IPEDs, as well as celebrate the successes of clean athletes and the excellent work done by National Governing Bodies and sporting partners to keep sport clean.”

Photo caption – Scottish Futures U18 players – (l-r) Kaylee Fraser, Rosa Cobban, Abbie Ledwidge, Chloe McCue