Anti-Doping Values in Coach Education - Erasmus Sport

Project Description

The use of performance enhancing drugs represents a threat to European sport, because doping undermines the key principles of open and fair competition. Doping also poses a significant threat to the physical and mental health of athletes. Although once thought of as being the preserve of elite athletes, a recent report containing students from 36 European countries revealed that doping also occurs within grassroots sports.The overreaching aim of this project is to reduce doping in grassroots sport across European member states. This will be achieved by developing an evidence-based mobile application for coaches. The project focuses on coaches who coach athletes aged between 14 and 21 years, because attitudes towards performance enhancing drugs are formed during this period. Coaches have been targeted, because recent research suggests that they possess very little knowledge of doping, but can strongly influence whether or not an athlete will dope. The purpose of the mobile application is to enhance coaches’ knowledge of doping and eliminate favorable attitudes towards doping. Another purpose of the mobile application is to provide coaches with strategies to reduce positive doping attitudes, reduce doping susceptibility, and reduce current and future intentions to dope among young athletes. The consortium contains experienced and recognized organizations, including four National Anti-Doping Organizations: University of Hull, International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education, KEA Fair Play Code Hellas, The Association for International Sport for All, Agence Francaise de Lutte Contre Le Dopage, Nationale Anti-Doping Agentur GMBH, Agencia Española de Protección de la Salud en el Deporte, and Anti-Doping Danmark. This constellation ensures the development of a high quality anti-doping mobile application for coaches, which will be available in six languages. It will be disseminated regionally in Europe and internationally after the project has ended.