Antonio La Torre

Anti-Doping Education – I Run Clean™ Workshop

Vilnius 2017

Background

As we know, doping phenomenon is enormously increasing in the last decades,

representing in this way a worldwide concern.

In 2015 Italy reported the highest number of doping cases in the world (72),

followed by Russia (70), India (26), USA (26) and Kenya (24)1.

Athletics was the most doped sport with 203 cases, followed by cycling (98) and

weight lifting (64)1.

1https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources;

Doping today

Nowadays, the use of substances in the pursuit of a body ideal appears an

increasingly accepted practice among youth and amateur athletes:

literature reports a small but significant proportion (3 -12%) of male adolescents have

used anabolic-androgenic steroids at some point of their life; in adults the prevalence

reaches the 70%2;

in Italy, in 2014, anti-doping tests were performed on 1427 young sportsmen and

amateur sportsmen: 4% of them is found positive at doping and 73% said they were

taking pharmaceuticals and health care products2.

Genetic doping.

2http://www.salute.gov.it/portale/news;

Online Pharma shop

Is it really so easy and cheap to buy EPO online?

..YES! We tried to search “Buy Epo Online” and “Buy

Testosterone Online” in Google..

What we found??

490.000 results for EPO and 20.300.000 results

for Testosterone!!!!

Doping is….BUSINESS!!

The business of doping is estimated to be around 200 BILLION of dollars.

Mafias, pharmaceutical companies and large entrepreneurs manage the world's

largest market after the cocaine traffic.

The newest alarming news

14 years old cyclist found positive to an anabolic steroid at a regional race

(June 2017).

Athletes as young as 12 are using performance-enhancing drugs in the

hopes of emulating their idols (The Guardian, 2014).

A study of more than 900 junior athletes carried out by Griffith University

and the University of Canberra has revealed 4% of those surveyed have

taken performance or image-enhancing drugs3.

Almost 5% of junior athletes say they have been offered performance-enhancing drugs3.

More than 10% believe their competitors are also doping3.

3http://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/media/monitor/2014/july/doping-in-athletes

How we have created Doping false-start

This project wants to represent a key strategy to protect the integrity of sport. It informs

students, young and amateur athletes, and fitness personnel about their antidoping rights and

responsibilities, but also to engage young and pure human resources into the antidoping battle.

Main goals:

inform and train a group of experts in those sports fields more exposed to the doping

phenomenon;

spread an healthy anti-doping culture by sending these experts within crucial destinations:

secondary schools, amateur track & fields athletes, and the world of fitness;

to get rid of distorted and misleading models of present-day society: aesthetic hedonism,

appearance, at-all-costs success, money&fame of top sports stars.

The beginning

Recruitment of 50 experts: sport scientists, endocrinologists, exercise

physiologists, coaches, sport psychologists, managers, etc.

32 hours of didactic-training for the experts.

48 hours of interactive-training for the experts.

Seminars and workshops for fitness personnel, high school students, athletes

and coaches.

In the school year 2015 - 2016 we launched a pilot study in 6 Italian regions,

reaching 4.000 high school students.

The school year 2016 - 2017

Started in only Lombardy region, “Doping off-

side” reached over 4.000 adolescents in 20

high schools (lyceum).

From January 2017, we spread the project in

all the regions.

During the entire school year 2016 – 2017 we

reached 16.000 students in over 100 high

schools.

Seminars and Workshops

Online questionnaires before the intervention in order to test the students’

knowledges concerning doping.

Discussion about the following themes:

What is doping

WADA prohibited substances list: classification and legitimacy

Effects on health and behaviours induced by performance-enhancing drugs

Doping diffusion: fitness club, internet, education sites, amateur sports fields.

Doping legislation: national and WADA-

Doping criminality

Ethical and health reasons intended to form negative attitudes toward doping

Online questionnaires after the intervention in order to test the efficiency of the

seminar.

Results & Feedbacks

Young students were found to be unaware of the doping phenomenon and its

relevance on the health.

Adolescents are more attracted by “clean” sports and champions who reach

their goal without shortcuts. This has been confirmed by the many questions

and request for further in-depth meeting received during each intervention.

“Doping off-side” in the scientific community

The project has been presented in a scientific

congress for the first time on September 30,

2017 at IX° SISMES National Congress placed

in Brescia, Italy, raising a notable successful.

Importance of a great scientific support behind

“Doping off-side” campaign in order to involve

more and more experts every year.

Future perspective

For the next school year 2017-2018, we foresee to extend the project

nationwide to all type of schools, in order to reach 40.000 students.

Cooperation with the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR).

Creation of a possible link with other Doping prevention programs, like

the European project “I Run Clean”.

FINAL TARGET

TO SPREAD A

LEGAL AND

FAIR CULTURE

Culture of legality mainly means responsibility. It is the link between

the single person and the group, the individual and the social justice, in

order to built a common ideal. A common ideal often under siege by social

inequality, leading corruption and a policy often unable to give effective

answers to the community’s actual problems.