It is a privilege to be ASADA’s new CEO. I am committed to regular communication with you in order to appreciate and understand some of the issues we face as we work to protect Australia’s sporting integrity through the elimination of doping.

In this issue, we touch on some of the latest anti-doping issues and developments, including ASADA’s 'You can never win your reputation back' campaign, e-learning solutions, ‘Check your substances’ tool and our new website. We also look at the 2011 Prohibited List.

ASADA has been working hard with other national anti-doping organisations to further develop and enhance anti-doping programs worldwide. We have recently participated in a number of events, including in Japan and India, where we shared our expertise in a number of areas such as our world-leading investigations and intelligence capability.

Back home, ASADA staff have been working closely with the Australian Commonwealth Games Association and associated sports to deliver our Pure Performance program. This program ensures that all athletes who are Delhi-bound have access to anti-doping education and are subject to doping control before they take off to represent Australia.

In the second half of the year, expect to hear from us again as we bring our annual stakeholder seminar series to cities around Australia. This series will outline updates to our anti-doping education solutions and the national sporting organisation compliance framework. It will also provide an overview of our anti-doping policy template for national sporting organisations.

Before I go, I would like to wish everyone heading to Delhi a successful journey.

Bye for now,

Aurora Andruska PSM
Chief Executive Officer

Research tells us that one of the primary deterrents for athletes considering doping is the risk to their reputation. In late May, we launched an awareness campaign that focuses on this.

The centrepiece of this unprecedented campaign is a confronting image of an athlete injecting himself with a prohibited substance.

To kick off the campaign, we had a successful launch with the Minister for Sport, the Hon. Kate Ellis MP, alongside three athlete ambassadors—Robert Murphy from the Western Bulldogs, Paralympic gold medallist Matthew Cowdrey, and World Champion and Olympic lightweight rower turned cyclist Amber Halliday.

Minister Ellis said that the hard-hitting image aims to give the campaign cut-through with the sporting community. ‘We want all athletes to sit up and take notice of our message and realise that doping in sport is just not worth it.’

We believe this is a very important message for everyone involved in sport. We are using a combination of digital and direct marketing and media during the campaign, with the aim of increasing traffic to our website where there is more information.

To make sure up-and-coming athletes receive the message that doping in sport is not worth it, we are also proactively distributing these posters to all high schools in those states who have requested them—Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.

High schools from other states interested in ordering posters for display in classrooms and/or change rooms should call the ASADA Hotline on 13 000 ASADA (13 000 27232).

Find out more about the campaign

Campaign resources are available for national sporting organisations or peak bodies that want to promote the campaign to their members

Based on stakeholder feedback, the Australian Government (including ASADA, the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee, the Australian Sports Commission and the Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory) will be making a submission to WADA in relation to the draft list.

Once WADA takes into account this year’s feedback and goes through a process of review and discussion, the updated list will be published in October and will come into effect on 1 January 2011.

We will let you know in the next edition of Anti-Doping Update about the key changes to the 2011 Prohibited List.

Important information for athletes regarding the 2011 Prohibited List

As the Prohibited List is reviewed and updated each year, it’s extremely important that you always check your substances online before taking them. The ‘Check your substances’ tool is constantly updated to reflect any changes to the Prohibited List.

Benefits will include:

• access to Pure Performance Online 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• fulfilling your education obligations around your schedule
• teaching approaches that meet your learning needs  
• increasing your participation and interaction in anti-doping education through simulations and real life scenarios
• learning about anti-doping at your own pace
• a certificate of participation
• becoming an advocate and contributing to maintaining a level playing field within your sporting community.

Pure Performance Online will be launching soon, keep an eye on the ASADA website for details.

Remember that you can remain anonymous. You do not have to provide any details about yourself if you don’t want to.

Help to keep sport clean for everyone and contact ASADA by calling the free, confidential hotline on 13 000 ASADA (13 000 27232), or you can email us via our secure email address stampoutdoping@asada.gov.au

ASADA values all information it receives.

The ‘Check your substances’ tool on the website is proving to be one of the most popular features, particularly with athletes. This application searches for Australian medications and substances, then tells you whether they are permitted or prohibited in sport.

To check your substances online, simply follow these steps:

1. Visit www.asada.gov.au and click on the ‘Check your substances’ icon.
2. Choose your sport, gender and role in sport.
3. Enter the name of your Australian medication.
4. Get your results instantly in a new window. If you want to check more than one substance, go back to step 3.

Those who don’t have ready access to the internet can request a hardcopy of the 2010 'Check your substances' booklet from the ASADA hotline 13 000 ASADA (13 000 27232).

As part of the project, a survey has been designed to find out what people who help athletes—such as coaches, physiotherapists, friends and supporters—think about doping in sport.

If you are an athlete support person, please take a few moments to complete the survey. It is anonymous and UNSW cannot identify you. The research team is also interested in interviewing people directly, and a contact form is included at the end of the survey.

The research project is funded by the Department of Health and Ageing through their Anti-Doping Research Program. However the research is completely independent. The project has ethics approval (UNSW A-09-33).

Please don’t hesitate to contact Dr James Connor, Lecturer, UNSW (phone: 02 6268 8799) if you require further information about the research.