The third session of the 5-part ITA Webinar Series was held on 2nd June, which focused on values, rights and responsibilities and was attended once again by many of the IFMA athletes and coaches. IFMA had issued a directive that called for participation of athletes from national federations.
Kady Kanouté Tounkara OLY, Chair of the WADA Education Committee and member of the ITA Education Expert Group, spoke of personal and sport values, and how this affect decision-making.
Olya Abasolo OLY, covered the Principle of Strict Liability as well as athletes’ rights and responsibilities. The athlete is solely responsible for any substance which is found in their body, regardless of whether there was an intention to cheat or not.
All athletes’ voices and experiences need to be heard in order to generate meaningful conversations about clean sport and the anti-doping system. This edition was unique – Sharad Kumar and Søren Johansson, two athletes who have been sanctioned for anti-doping rule violations, also spoke about their personal experiences. Sharad Kumar, who had been sanctions when he was actually innocent and did not have any means to prove himself innocent and to this day he is still “charged” in other peoples’ eyes as a cheater. Soren Johansson, on the other hand, was the first Danish athlete to be banned for life because he was caught for using anabolic steroids on two occasions. Their stories are very interesting and are definitely worth listening to.
All the ITA webinar sessions can be found here: https://muaythai.sport/ita-anti-doping-education-webinars/
