Svein Arne Hansen renewed his support for the European Athletics anti-doping education programme during the Junior Championships in Eskilstuna.
President Hansen, a vocal campaigner of clean sport, said he would like to see young athletes take part in a mandatory anti-doping education programme in order to be allowed to compete in major European Athletics events.
“The Junior Championships are the perfect opportunity for us to raise awareness amongst these young athletes who have for the most part never been confronted with an international testing procedure,” Hansen said.
Christian Olsson the Olympic gold medallist from Athens 2004 was also present in Eskilstuna on Saturday morning and said: “The message of this education programme is very positive and demonstrates that athletes need to be united against doping.
“It’s part of my role as an ambassador of the sport to stress the importance of a clean sport to the next generation,” he added.
The programme is being led by two members of the European Athletics Young Leaders Community Xicu Colomar and Katrin Heyers, as was the case in Tallinn during the Under-23 Championships last week.
The participating athletes are invited to complete a quiz on their knowledge of doping control regulations. Those who successfully complete the quiz receive a t-shirt with the slogans of the programme – I Run Clean, I Jump Clean, I Throw Clean, I Walk Clean.
Visit the Athletics Community Facebook page to view photos from the programme.
A Twitter campaign using the hashtags #irunclean, #ijumpclean, #ithrowclean and #iwalkclean is being used to promote the programme and help raise awareness about the dangers of doping. A project page has also been created on the European Athletics Young Leaders Community here.
The athletes at the press conference on Wednesday, Lovisa Ostervall, William Levay, Morgan Lake, Simon Litzell, Konrad Bukowiecki and Florentina Marincu, were the first ones to receive their t-shirts with the European Athletics anti-doping message.
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