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With clean and fair sporting competition being compromised, and with it the health of a generation of people, the deep-rooted issues impacting on communities across Wales are set to be tackled with fresh impetus.
After a myriad of agencies came together in Cardiff to discuss the issue of �Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs� at a special symposium, Brian Davies, Sport Wales Director of Elite Sport, gives his view on the issue, the role of sport and the joint efforts to tackle the issue.
Although image and performance enhancing drugs is an issue pertinent across the UK, the evidence that has been found from testing in sport in Wales has amplified that the issue of image and performance enhancing drugs is a significant one within our communities.
The fact that a number of athletes, at a relatively low level of sport, are being caught after taking performance enhancing drugs is a significant indication that something needs to be done.
But while sport is highlighting the problem through targeted testing, sport can only help provide part of the answer.
The whole point of the symposium was to bring together as many of the agencies and people who will be involved in tackling the issue. This ranges from police, health, border agencies, government, social services, sport, UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), communities and even education.
Sport Wales� relationship with UKAD has developed and evolved over several years and we are keen to take a similar approach with all those other agencies looking to address this at a community level.
The support for the event highlights how big the issue is. To have the Minister for Social Services and Public Health on stage shows the appetite for really getting under the skin of this work. It was the first event of its kind in the UK and was an important step to harness the clear commitment, from all involved, for Wales to be proactive in this field.
The clear point through all the discussions on the day is that image and performance enhancing substance abuse is a problem in our communities and, as sport is an integral part of our communities, sport has a role to play in tackling the situation.
It�s a very complex issue, so the purpose of the symposium was to start on a journey of trying to makes things better and trying to find some answers.
Whatever we do in sport we shouldn�t do in isolation because we can�t solve the issue on our own. It is only by working together that we can make real gains.
Personally, the scale of the criminal activity involved was quite eye-opening � particularly the complexity of the networks looking to take advantage of people for their own gain.
Towards the end of the symposium we all committed to follow up discussions and drawing out the contributions that we could make moving forward.
For Sport Wales I pledged that we would increase our efforts and resources on education with the governing bodies of sport because that is something that we can directly influence. This will be done in partnership with UKAD, the agency with overall responsibility.
We�ll also be leading on opening up communication between all the agencies involved in the event and working through their initial thoughts and expectations. To facilitate this we have created an email address IPED@sport.wales for people to share their ideas, thoughts and views.
The next step could be a Welsh one, or it could be a UK-wide. We realise that this issue is not bound by geography. The symposium was a positive start to a more co-ordinated approach to this complex issue.
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