For our part, ASADA has had a busy year working closely with the community, sporting organisations and international agencies to develop and deliver leading-edge anti-doping programs.

Some of our major projects have included:

• issuing a major public announcement in October warning Australian athletes to carefully consider their use of supplements following nine positive Australian test results for the prohibited stimulant methylhexaneamine
• completing Pure Performance programs for the Youth Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
• expanding our intelligence-based targeted testing program
• running, in conjunction with the Minister for Sport and athlete Ambassadors, the You can never win your reputation back national awareness campaign, warning athletes at all levels of Australian sport of the risks and repercussions of doping
• completing consultative forums with national sporting organisations in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Looking forward, 2011 promises exciting changes and opportunities in the anti-doping world as we continue to seek a level playing field in Australian and international sport.

The first thing coming up which you need to be aware of is the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) new Prohibited List, which comes into effect on 1 January 2011. See this edition for further important information on the Prohibited List.

We will also be busy in 2011 with a range of major projects including:

• encouraging athletes and sporting organisations to try our new ASADA e-Learning solution which has just been formally released
• strengthening working relationships and partnership arrangements with state institutes and academies of sport, and state law enforcement agencies
• working with our international partners on a range of projects to enhance anti-doping efforts globally
• investigating new ways to strengthen our detection program
• the development of our strategic plan which will set our direction as an organisation over the next three years.

I look forward to working with the sporting community and the new Minister for Sport, Senator the Hon Mark Arbib in the upcoming year to maintain Australia’s reputation as an international leader in the campaign against doping in sport.

Before I go, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. 

Bye for now

Aurora Andruska PSM
Chief Executive Officer

The core six 20-minute modules, called Pure Performance Online, provide you with the opportunity to learn about the key areas of anti-doping. It covers topics such as prohibited substances and methods, Therapeutic Use Exemptions, doping control and Whereabouts.

A further 15-minute module is available if you want to become a Pure Performance Supporter. This module provides you with the information and resources you need to share the anti-doping message amongst your sporting community.

Those who already have experience in facilitation, training or in education can complete ASADA’s Pure Performance Facilitator module. A facilitator will be provided with information and resources to run anti-doping education sessions within their community.

ASADA e-Learning is easy to use and free. Get started today by visiting the education page on our website.

For more information about ASADA e-Learning or if you have any questions please contact us at education@asada.gov.au

The Prohibited List is reviewed and updated each year, so it’s extremely important that you are aware of the changes and how they might affect you.

Some of the major changes to the Prohibited List for 2011 are:

• a modification to the classification of methylhexaneamine
• removal of the obligation for athletes to file a Declaration of Use for specific substances that are not prohibited
• the removal of platelet-derived preparations (commonly referred to as PRP)
• the addition of a new section on "non-approved substances".

You can check the status of a substance or any Australian medication at any time by referring to the Check Your Substances tool on the ASADA website. Check Your Substances will be updated to reflect the 2011 changes on 22 December 2010.

We encourage you to also check out more detailed information about these changes on our website or by visiting the WADA website.

We felt we had an obligation to issue this strong warning given that these nine positive tests occurred over a very short period of time. To place this figure in context, over the entire 2009–10 financial year, there were only 19 positive tests recorded, and this was for a range of substances.

A number of the Australian athletes who tested positive to methylhexaneamine are still having their matter reviewed. We strongly believe that each athlete deserves the right for us to deal with their matter in a fair and impartial way and this extends to having their matter kept private while being reviewed. We have issued some anti-doping rule violation announcements surrounding methylhexaneamine this month.

It is encouraging to see that our warning has been mimicked by other major anti-doping organisations including UK Anti-Doping, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and Drug Free Sport New Zealand as well as sporting bodies such as UEFA.

The seriousness of the issue was also highlighted with the recent case involving two South African Springboks rugby players suspected of having ingested this substance inadvertently through the use of supplements.

Athletes need to be aware of WADA’s strict liability principle, which states that they are responsible for any substance found in their body and there is a risk that supplements could contain prohibited substances even if the ingredients listed on the label do not appear on the Prohibited List.

For further detailed information about methylhexaneamine and supplements please check out our website.

Your feedback directly helps ASADA improve our services to you. Read our next article about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to see how we’re using your feedback.

The survey will be conducted again next year in May. We’d really like to hear from more of you, so please take the opportunity to anonymously give us feedback about the services we offer.

Thank you again to all who participated.

 

In 2009 we successfully revamped our website and introduced the Check Your Substances tool. In 2010 we have continued our work in this area by venturing into the social media space with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We use these pages to communicate important anti-doping information and resources to the sporting community.

Anyone can sign up to keep up-to-date with the world of anti-doping. You can also provide views, comments, ideas and insights by:

• following us on Twitter: twitter.com/anti_doping
• subscribing to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/asadavideo 
• ‘liking’ us on Facebook: facebook.com/pureperformance

We’ve already started to look at other ways we can enhance our online presence, including the creation of mobile versions of our website, the Check Your Substances tool and the Athlete Whereabouts sites.

So stay in touch for the latest happenings at ASADA.

For a substance or method to be prohibited, it must meet two of the following three conditions:

1. The substance or method has the potential to enhance, or does enhance performance in sport.
2. The substance or method has the potential to risk the athlete’s health.
3. The substance or method is deemed to violate the spirit of sport.

 

The Prohibited List is an International Standard and is updated annually by WADA following a consultation process that takes into account views from WADA's List Expert Group and stakeholders.