In this episode of On Side, we speak to Andrew Collins, ASADA’s Chief Information Officer.  A self-confessed nerd, Andrew has always been interested in technology and loves pulling things apart. A university degree led him to Defence intelligence where he was introduced to the world of cyber security. Andrew was brought to ASADA to lead our digital transformation to a paperless organisation and to help protect our data, such as athletes’ records.  “We have to be prepared,” Collins says as ASADA exists in a global environment where it is exposed to large number of threats including state-sponsored threats. This preparation includes engaging in a number of partnerships with government organisations and corporate partners. “At the end of the day, together we are all stronger.” He says ASADA is very protective of the information that it holds. “At the end of the day we are entrusted to hold this information and we are very conscious that it is a position of trust.”  We also explore whether an athlete can leave a test session if they have to catch a flight and how to use the ASADA app.

S1 E9 | Protecting athlete data with Chief Information Officer Andrew Collins

AIS Chief Medical Officer Dr David Hughes talks about the issues of inclusion in sport following the release of the  in June.  Sport Australia, in consultation with the Australian Human Rights Commission (HRC) and the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports, whose members include the AFL, Tennis Australia, Rugby Australia, Netball Australia and Cricket Australia, established guidelines for the nation to promote more inclusive practices for transgender and gender diverse people in sport.  Dr Hughes says transgender and gender diversity is not a sport issue, it’s a societal issue.  “It’s important that sport at all time reflects societal changes, and moves with societal changes,” Dr Hughes says. “Transgender individuals have for many years been on the margins of society and not accepted in the main stream and I think sport has an important role here by promoting diverse gender inclusion to ensure that every Australian fulfils their right to have their life enriched by sport.”  The guidelines include information, case studies and steps to ensure an inclusive sporting environment. He says the document is targeted at the grassroots and has relevance for elite sports, but “I don’t think its purpose is to try and sort out the complex issues that specifically apply to high performance sport where there are issues between getting the balance right between fairness and inclusion”.  “Everyone has the right to compete and enjoy the benefits sport offers but at the highest levels of sport, fairness is critical,” he says. “At the grassroots, we should err on the side of inclusion.”  Produced by Lyndall Larkham &amp; Tim Gavel Recorded, edited &amp; mixed by Ryan Micallef

S1 E7 | Transgender issues in sport with Dr David Hughes

In this episode of On Side Darren Mullaly, our Deputy CEO – Legal, Education and Corporate, discusses why ASADA has confidentiality undertakings with national sporting organisations (NSOs).  Mullaly says ASADA’s default position on the disclosure of protected information is to maintain confidentiality, however there is some flexibility.  “The confidentiality undertakings don’t restrict sports in all cases, there’s sufficient flexibility built into those arrangements where ASADA can talk with sports and make decisions on a case-by-case basis because … as we know every single one of these cases is different,” Darren says.  “We need the flexibility in those arrangements to be able to take into account things like an athlete’s welfare, which is going to vary from case to case, from sport to sport, from event to event, and other considerations like the operational advantage ASADA gets in terms of exercising its powers and a range of operational considerations that are built around that.”  We also discuss whether athletes on the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) can being tested outside their designated hour, and how ASADA’s education reaches all levels: sports, schools and support personnel, parents, and students.  This podcast goes behind the scenes of ASADA, it answers questions relating to anti-doping and educates you about clean fair sport.  Our mission is to protect the health of athletes and the integrity of Australian sport.  Produced by Lyndall Larkham &amp; Tim Gavel. Recorded, edited &amp; mixed by Ryan Micallef.

S1 E3 | Confidentiality undertakings with deputy CEO Darren Mullaly

Welcome to Season 2 of On Side. 

Today’s episode features 2008 and 2012 Paralympic cycling gold medalist Michael Gallagher. Prior to the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, Gallagher tested positive for recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO) at a training camp in Italy. Still under sanction, Gallagher talks about the biggest impact his sanction had on him and what drove him to “cross a dark line”. 

“It [sanction] is still something I think about regularly,” Gallagher says. “I took a long time to recover from it… [and did] a lot of self-reflecting.” 

Gallagher is now a member of ASADA’s Athlete Advisory Group (AAG), which comprises a number of current and former athletes, including athletes who have lost medals to drug cheats. “Sports a passionate thing, and people have the right to feel strongly about certain people’s decisions, but I think my story, and people meeting me in person, probably makes doping seem a lot less black and white,” he says. “That you can be a good person, an honest person, but head down the wrong way.” 

Our athlete services officer Di Tucknott also answers a question about logging your whereabouts, along with our sports operations manager Steve Northey delivering a 'fast fact' about anti-doping tests conducted last financial year.

S2 E1 | Crossing a dark line, with dual Paralympic gold medalist Michael Gallagher

This episode focuses on an anti-doping education collaboration between the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ).   USADA’s Elite Education Manager Tammy Hanson says while there are a lot of similarities between the programs, collaborating and sharing resources was “invaluable”.   “We’re questioning everything that we do, pushing forward, making changes if they’re for the better and making sure we’re leaning on our resources - to collaborate, not to work in silos, but to share resources…” she says. “It enables the agencies to bounce ideas and discuss the best approaches and messaging for athletes.”   ASADA’s A/G Director of Education and Innovation Alexis Cooper says the challenge is capturing the attention of athletes, parents, coaches, and the sporting community through new technologies.   “Anti-doping is often not the most exciting thing that athletes want to talk about,” Cooper says. “They would often rather be training so what we do is use new technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, apps, those sorts of things to try to cut through and engage the audiences and get them interested.”   They both agreed that education is about building positive cultures, ensuring athletes understand how choosing to take performance enhancing drugs impacts them, their reputation and their country’s reputation.   “We’re not fighting a war on drugs, we are fighting a win-at-all-costs mentality,” Hanson says, “so anything that we can do to help them (athletes) really start thinking about the decisions that they make, that using a dietary supplement is a thought, it’s a decision; trusting a coach when they give you advice, that’s a decision that you’re making; not reporting doping or reporting it, that’s a decision…”   ASADA's Assistant Director of Operations also joins this episode providing an answer to the question "Are doping protocols the same everywhere?".

S2 E2 | Fighting a win-at-all-costs mentality, with USADA’s Tammy Hanson and ASADA’s Alexis Cooper

Swimmer and three-time Olympic gold medallist Petria Thomas has a message for all athletes - “You don’t need to cheat to be good”. Petria joins us on the Podcast this week to discuss the role anti-doping plays to ensure a level playing field and how the process has developed over time. “It [testing] is a part of being an elite athlete,” she says. “It’s not just about enduring the testing, it’s about actually being an advocate for clean sport as well and really pushing the message out that you don’t need to cheat to be good.” She also discusses her role on ASADA’s Athlete Advisory Group and the importance of athletes being able to have a voice in the anti-doping world. “Athletes are the biggest stakeholder in sport. They have the most to lose if sport goes belly up so it’s really important that they have a seat at the table and are heard and their feedback is considered in the way that sport is developed and run into the future.” ASADA’s Senior Education Officer Cheryl Kalthofen answers a question from the public regarding the best way is to educate junior athletes about anti-doping.

S2 E3 | “You don’t need to cheat to be good” – Olympic gold medallist Petria Thomas

USADA CEO Travis Tygart has dealt with some of the biggest anti-doping cases in history, such as the scandals involving Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones. 

Tygart says “nobody ever likes to have to hold a global icon accountable or take away five medals from a Marion Jones”. “Those are tough moments and you wish those athletes hadn’t made the decision to cheat,” he says. 

Despite receiving numerous death threats as a result, Tygart remains committed to clean, fair sport. “Whether it’s an American or an Australian, if you cheat and break the rules, you should be held accountable and that’s the code that we’ve all agreed to.” 

He’s very passionate about keeping the integrity in sport at all times and is not afraid to say what he thinks, always pointing to his “north star” - clean athletes. 

Our Medical Officer Larissa Trease also answers a question from the public about the prohibited substance GW1516, why it is banned and the health risked associated; and we detail our suite of online education programs – from Level Two to Clean Sport 101 – that are tailored to all athletes from elite to grassroots. For more:   &nbsp;

S2 E4 | Talking Lance Armstrong and death threats with Travis Tygart

This episode features two of our Doping Control state managers John Rhodes (Victoria) and Alissa Ready (Queensland). John and Alissa commenced their newly created roles in July to be a conduit between the Canberra office, regional staff and sports. John, who has a background in anti-corruption, says the perception of ASADA of the past has been “misrepresented” and is happy to see this perception has changed in recent times. Alissa agreed. She said that ASADA was seen as the “bad guy” but is much more athlete-centric now, helping athletes to comply with the rules. “The DCO and chaperones are going out and really trying to engage with athletes and the [sporting] organisations and trying to educate them, while waiting for athletes to produce a sample,” she said. “DCOs and chaperones play a key education role, they educate athletes about supplements, medications; it’s about helping athletes and enabling them.” John added: “The professional standing of our operators in the field is really first class.” In the “So I was wondering…” segment, our Director of Legal answers a question from the public, this week it’s “What is prohibited association?”

S2 E6 | No longer the enemy, with State Managers of Doping Control John Rhodes and Alissa Ready

With Sport Integrity Australia opening to the public on July 1, new Chief Executive Officer David Sharpe talks about the dangers sports will face in the future in the latest episode of OnSide. Sharpe admits there are a “lot of challenges ahead”, particularly in the current COVID-19 climate. “If you took me back three or four months ago, I would have said the greatest threats in sport are organised crime infiltrating sport and vulnerabilities in sport,” Sharpe says, “but right at the moment I think the immediate threat that has been exposed is the fact that the COVID virus has led to an economic downturn in sport and staff have been reduced across education, integrity and welfare units and I think that really has exposed some major vulnerabilities across sporting bodies.” He says the loss of structure in athletes’ day-to-day lives poses potential problems, too. “Athletes and sporting bodies have very structured organisations; athletes are told when to arrive, when to sleep, when to eat, when to train, and what goes into their body, without that supervision on a day-to-day basis it really exposes them to vulnerabilities around making decisions that they don’t normally, or haven’t normally, had to make. “From that, it opens up opportunities for organised crime to go in and exploit them and use that to their benefit in betting markets.” Sport Integrity Australia will oversee integrity issues such as the manipulation of sporting competitions, use of drugs and doping methods, abuse, bullying, and discrimination in sport, however Sharpe says the organisation will not work alone. Also on On Side, Steve Northey, our Assistant Director - Sport Operations, answers the question from the public about athletes being tested while overseas.

S2 E7 | The danger for sport post-COVID-19 with Sport Integrity Australia CEO David Sharpe

The National Sports Tribunal CEO John Boultbee says the tribunal is an “overdue” opportunity for sporting bodies, athletes and support personnel. “It’s the first time Australia has had its own Sports Tribunal to hear all matters from all sports and to be at arm’s length from the sports and provide an independent and transparent service,” Boultbee says. The highly respected senior sports administrator and lawyer says the tribunal provides a cost-effective, efficient, independent and transparent avenue for the resolution of sporting disputes. The tribunal will hear anti-doping violations, disciplinary disputes, selection and eligibility disputes, and matters relating to bullying, harassment and discrimination. “We have 40 tribunal members, they are the people who will hear cases and conduct mediations in the tribunal,” Boultbee says. “They come from outside of Government, they come from outside of sports organisations and some even from outside of sports, so they are truly independent and not appointed by sports that might be a party to the dispute.” Panel members include former athletes, sports administrators and experts in specialist areas such as anti-doping and medicine. The tribunal will run on an opt-in basis. For those sports that already have a tribunal, Boultbee says athletes can choose to use the NST or retain their current system. The creation of the Tribunal, along with Sport Integrity Australia, was identified in the Wood Review as part of a whole package of governance reforms designed to protect athletes and sport. In our segment, “So I was wondering” our Senior Education Officer Cheryl Kalthofen explains why ASADA does not approve or endorse any supplements.

S2 E8 | John Boultbee: National Sports Tribunal an “overdue” opportunity

Our mission is to protect the health of athletes and the integrity of Australian sport.

This podcast goes behind the scenes of ASADA, answers questions from the public and educates you about clean fair sport.

On Side - The ASADA Podcast

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