New WADA VP Yang stresses anti-doping education
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E-mail Xinhua, January 2, 2020
New World Anti-Doping Agency vice president Yang Yang stressed the importance of education in the global fight against doping as she talked to Xinhua News Agency in an exclusive interview.
Yang became the first Chinese to assume a leadership role in WADA's 20-year history after being elected vice president on November 7 in Poland. Beginning her term on Wednesday, she believed it is important to both provide athletes with anti-doping knowledge and shape their values.
"I used to be an athlete, so I totally understand the importance of education, both on a technical level and for values," said the former winter Olympic champion.
Yang said anti-doping organizations should not only teach athletes how to avoid using banned drugs, but also give them education based on the correct values of fair play and honesty.
"And more important is the value-based education. We want more people, not just athletes, to realize that doping is cheating. We hope athletes can be determined to be clean and be proud of it from a young age and WADA has good programs on this," she continued, adding that it is necessary to educate athletes' supporting teams as well.
Yang believed that China has done a good job in the area of anti-doping education and she has spoken about the experience at international meetings.
"Athletes have to pass an anti-doping knowledge exam in order to qualify for international and major national events. I heard two athletes were disqualified from the 2nd National Youth Games in 2019 because they failed the exam," the former speed skater revealed.
When it comes to future work, Yang said WADA wants greater transparency as "transparency leads to trust."
New WADA President Witold Banka also hopes to establish a Solidarity Fund to help develop an anti-doping mechanism worldwide that is more balanced.
"At Rio 2016, 10 percent of medalists were from countries and regions with no anti-doping centers or labs. They lack access to anti-doping education and are not subject to anti-doping tests in everyday life. This is not fair for athletes who constantly undergo doping tests. So this fund aims to help those areas to build their anti-doping systems, which is critical in the global anti-doping effort," Yang said.
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