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Here are our top tips to help ensure your athlete starts clean and stays clean.

1. Education

Educate yourself and your athlete about the principles of clean sport, the importance of fair competition and integrity, the risks of doping, and the anti-doping rules. Ensure you (and your athlete) know what constitutes a doping violation.

Stay up-to-date on anti-doping policies, rule changes, and changes to the prohibited substances list. For the last point, it's a good idea to follow UK Anti-Doping on social media as these changes will be announced here.

2. Communication

Encourage your athlete to ask questions, express concerns, and share any experiences or pressures they may encounter. 

Openly discuss any doping cases in the media and the consequences the banned athlete faces. This can help your athlete create a good attitude towards clean sport. Demonstrating respect for clean athletes will send a positive message to your own athlete.

Importantly, these conversations also allow them to fully understand your views on doping and cheating, which can significantly reduce the chances of them going down this route. 

3. Lead by Example

Be a role model by promoting clean sports values, demonstrating sportsmanship, and emphasising the importance of playing by the rules. 

Create the narrative that good performances come from hard work, good nutrition, and sleep rather than external factors like protein powder (and even ‘super shoes’, etc.). Avoid suggesting (and try to discourage) the use of ‘external performance enhancers’, e.g. the use of supplements.

6. Medication Awareness

All medications, prescribed or bought over the counter, could contain prohibited substances… even simple flu remedies! This page on the UKAD website explains this well. 

It is important to understand the rules surrounding the use of medications and the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). UKAD's Medicine and TUE Hub has everything you need to know.

Get into the habit of using the Global DRO search tool to check that medications/prescriptions do not contain banned substances.

Occasionally, new medications, for example, are added to the list of banned substances. It is up to you to remain up to date with changes because saying you didn't realise will not overturn a doping ban! We recommend you follow UK Anti-Doping on social media for updates. 

7. Supportive Environment

This is a big one because social influence, especially during the teenage years, can be huge.

Encourage them to surround themselves with like-minded peers and coaches committed to clean sports values. If they suspect someone within their training or competition environment of doping, encourage them to distance themselves from that person. 

8. Accountability

Finally, ensure they fully understand that they are 100% responsible for what goes into their bodies…

Understand that ‘excuses’ will be irrelevant if they fail a test. The 100% Me education and information programme has an app designed specifically for athletes that provides more information about this.

If you've found this information helpful, we've created The Athlete Place, our athlete-specific platform that will inform, motivate and inspire your athlete...

Evidence-Based Research

Our content is supported by:

• Blank, C., Leichtfried, V., Schaiter, R., Fürhapter, C., Müller, D. and Schobersberger, W., 2015. Doping in sports: Knowledge and attitudes among parents of a Austrian junior athletes. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 25(1), pp.116-124. (View Paper)