National Science Week: Highlighting Sport Integrity Australia’s Science Capability
Sport Integrity Australia is celebrating National Science Week by calling out the critical role that science plays in keeping sport free from doping.
One of only a small number of National Anti-Doping Organisations with a dedicated team of scientists, Sport Integrity Australia uses science to inform decision making across a range of emerging threats such as prohibited substances and methods in sports, investigations and intelligence matters, as well as informing the agency’s education program.
Acting CEO, Dr Sarah Benson knows all too well the importance of science leading change and offering solutions having been the first female Chief Forensic Scientist at the Australian Federal Police.
“Science is the foundation of all the anti-doping work we do – from analysing athlete biological passports, to providing advice on how different substances interact with athlete physiology, to helping educate sports doctors and athletes,” said Dr Benson.
“We are committed to strengthening Science and Technology partnerships in the lead up to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games to ensure our capabilities are sophisticated and cutting edge in the lead up to the green and gold decade of events.”
Dr Sarah Benson said to celebrate National Science Week, we want to shed light on the wide-ranging and valuable work of our dedicated team.
“In the past 12 months, our Science and Medicine team have reviewed more than 800 athlete biological profiles, and provided support to more than 400 athletes and their doctors on the proper use of medications in sport.”
“In addition, there have been more than 465,000 medication checks using our online tool Global DRO, and almost 14,000 athletes have checked nearly 67,000 supplements on the Sport Integrity app.”
“These stats really highlight the important work of our passionate and dedicated team, who I am so fortunate to work with in the sport integrity space,” said Dr Benson.
The team has also supported research into the prevalence of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED) use in the Australian community, in partnership with the University of Queensland. This work analyses wastewater samples collected from across the country to understand how widespread PED use is in the community.
