The good news is that FIH is recognised by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) as one of the top sporting Federations when it comes to anti-doping education and prevention. The not unsurprising news is that the FIH team behind anti-doping wants to keep it that way.
“We are in a very good position as we have very few adverse analytical findings, with just a handful of positive tests over many, many years,” says Jon Wyatt, FIH Sport Director. “We want keep the barriers as high as we possibly can and make sure that the deterrents are greater than the incentives to cheat.”
The advent of the high profile FIH Pro League, and continual drive to keep hockey clean, has driven an evolution in the FIH anti-doping programme. With the Pro League comes prize money and enhanced public profiles for hockey’s top athletes. Wyatt and his team are aware of this increased incentive for results and performances, so they have been working with WADA on ways to continually improve the way things are done.
The introduction of these improvements coincide with WADA’s Play True Day on 10 April, which aims to raise awareness of the importance of clean sport among athletes and sports fans across the world.
To read the full story, including a comment from WADA’s Director General Olivier Niggli and an exclusive interview with Argentinian player and FIH Athletes Committee member Carla Rebecchi, please click here.
