Emageo Group Managing Director Sam Maxwell has revealed how much education elite athletes receive on anti doping measures, saying he has little sympathy for those who play dumb.
Speaking on Part 2 of Episode 2 of Podcast, Sport Insights with Emageo, Maxwell said drug testing was just part of being an elite athlete.
Following on from Part 1, featuring Alana Boyd, Maxwell and Bridget Lacy also touched on the Sun Yang case that is currently being heard, broke down the difference between in-competition and out-of-competition testing, as well as illicit drug codes.
Maxwell said the system was very clear for those involved.
“There is a lot of education that comes with that,” Maxwell said. “You see each of the governing bodies will circulate pamphlets and hand outs and conduct regular sessions on everything really – from what’s on the list, what’s prohibited, the changes that are coming.
“The list from WADA for 2020 came out a couple of weeks ago. Just recently we received a detailed update from each of the tennis bodies and how that relates to the athletes so they know what they can and can’t take. They all know from a testing side of things what they have to do. If an athlete is coming onto the whereabouts list for the first time, they are given a whole lot of resources about how to manage that.
“That’s something we probably get a little bit involved with as well, given as a management group we’ve been doing this for 10 years now. So one of our athletes may be new to it but we’ve done it for a while.
“That’s the thing, no governing body is out to trick the athletes. We’re all on the same page, they want a clean sport so there’s a lot of education that comes and, as I said before, the athletes know that this is just part of the life of being an elite athlete and for the most part they should be across this.
“I don’t really have a whole lot of sympathy for those who play dumb. They are given the training, they are given the education so they really should know.”