Scientists have found that European Athletics’ new I Run Clean workshops have had a positive impact on participants’ resistance to doping and strengthened the fight against doping with an additional, innovative tool to complement the current I Run Clean e-learning platform.
A study conducted by anti-doping education specialists from the University of Milan and La Sapienza University of Rome – published recently in the European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education – has demonstrated the workshops’ effect on key psychological parameters in young athletes and the coaches who influence them.
It also confirmed the quality of the training for the volunteer ambassadors tasked with leading the workshops.
Welcoming the research results, European Athletics First Vice President Jean Gracia commented that he was, “proud of the project and the example it sets for Member Federations and other partners on their ability to cooperate with the EU for the benefit of the sport.
“We had some real challenges, not least the Covid pandemic which broke out just weeks after we started and meant we had to completely change the way we worked,” added Gracia, who is also President of the Paris-based Agency for the Development of Athletics in Europe (ADAE), which was established by European Athletics to bid for European Union project grants and was responsible for coordinating the ten partner organisations that delivered the I Run Clean project.
“I have to thank the European Union for its Erasmus+ programme and our whole team: the project managers, the experts representing all the partners and, of course, the young ambassadors we hope will continue working with their federations to deliver I Run Clean workshops in the future,” he said.
“Together we have augmented I Run Clean by developing valuable new tools for reaching the grassroots and promoting the clean sport culture of athletics.”
The recently concluded three-year I Run Clean project also created additional anti-doping e-learning modules aimed at coaches, medical support personnel and sport leaders to supplement the existing modules for athletes.
The additional modules are currently being incorporated into a redesigned course that will enhance the online user experience when it is released on a new platform in January 2024.
In addition to European Athletics, ADAE, the University of Milan and La Sapienza University of Rome, the I Run Clean project team included La Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris as well as the athletics federations of Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
To date more than 41,000 individuals have completed the I Run Clean e-learning programme and received their I Run Clean certification, which is mandatory to compete at a European Athletics event.
You can read the University of Milan and La Sapienza University of Rome research paper here.
To find out more about European Athletics' innovative I Run Clean project visit: www.iruncleanproject.eu
To get your I Run Clean certificate visit: www.irunclean.org