“Education is the key to protecting the clean athlete” – words of wisdom from Dr. Erdogan, Chair of IFMA’s Medical Commission to the young athletes attending the recent 2017 IFMA Youth World Championships in Bangkok.
IFMA took the opportunity to use the Youth Awards Night fun fair to reach out to the youth to raise awareness and educate on matters related to Fair Play and anti-doping. The fun fair which was organised with the intention to give the youth a platform for cultural exchange and fun offered many games stalls with traditional fairground games like bottle toss and shoot the duck among others.
One of the stalls was devoted to Anti-Doping and dressed in the characteristic WADA brand colour of vibrant green and offered informational pamphlets to athletes on a wide variety of subjects such as TUEs, Doping Control, Prohibited List and where they could access it and of course a specially adapted game.
The kids were invited to catch a star from the “Tree of Anti-Doping Knowledge” which would reveal a question which if answered correctly, won them a prize. Questions covered a spread of topics and anti-doping trivia and were multiple choice.
“We are particularly pleased with how popular the Anti-Doping Game booth was among the kids, and satisfied with the efficacy of this method of reaching the kids on a very real and tangible level. They showed true interest and understanding of the importance of this subject, which gives me confidence that the future of our sport is clean in the hands of our young.” Said Charissa Tynan, IFMA Sport Director.