This episode features two of our Doping Control state managers John Rhodes (Victoria) and Alissa Ready (Queensland).

John and Alisa commenced their newly created roles in July to be a conduit between the Canberra office, regional staff and sports.

John, who has a background in anti-corruption, says the perception of ASADA of the past has been “misrepresented” and is happy to see this perception has changed in recent times.

Alisa agreed. She said that ASADA was seen as the “bad guy” but is much more athlete-centric now, helping athletes to comply with the rules.

“The DCO and chaperones are going out and really trying to engage with athletes and the [sporting] organisations and trying to educate them, while waiting for athletes to produce a sample,” she said.

“DCOs and chaperones play a key education role, they educate athletes about supplements, medications; it’s about helping athletes and enabling them.”

John added: “The professional standing of our operators in the field is really first class.”

In the “So I was wondering…” segment, our Director of Legal answers a question from the public, this week it’s “What is prohibited association?”