Today we meet the science and medicine team behind our anti-doping efforts.

In this episode of On Side, our host Tim Gavel talks to some of Sport Integrity Australia’s science and medicine experts - Chief Science Officer Dr Naomi Speers, Science Officer Rima Chakrabarty and Medical Advisor Dr Laura Lallenec.

The trio discusses all things anti-doping - prohibited substances and methods in sports, the dangers supplements pose to an athlete’s career, putting the pieces of the anti-doping puzzle together, and our role working with support personnel and medical professionals to educate athletes.

The evolving nature of anti-doping is part of the attraction for Dr Speers.

“The challenge is keeping on top of everything that’s changing,” Dr Speers says. “Different substances that people might be using and keeping aware of them and making sure that athletes are aware [of the risks], but also changing technology and understanding that and thinking about how can we apply that.

“We have a Blood Passport which looks for blood doping, a Steroid Passport which looks for doping with testosterone and next year an Endocrine Passport [will be included], which will look for doping with growth hormone.”

Trying to understand a doping scenario and apply it to the results is one aspect that fascinates Chakrabarty.

“Is there a physiological cause for that? Is there potentially other substances that have been used, like non-prohibited substances that can cause the impact on the Steroid Passport, for example? And also is your physiology affecting it?

“Have you been doing a lot of training and that's affecting your blood passport? Or have you been to a specific location, like in an altitude … It's got a lot more nuance to it."

“It’s really interesting just to be able to sit down and look at it, what’s possible and try and put a lot more pieces together.”

Dr Lallenec, who is currently Head Doctor at AFL premiership team Melbourne, joined the agency in January to provide medical guidance on sport integrity matters such as the use of prohibited substances and methods in sports, safeguarding of children in the sporting environment, as well as for investigations and intelligence matters.

“I love health administration and health governance as well as public health, so it's sort of combines those two things from me.”