During the 2022 IBSA Judo Grand Prix in Brazil, a new IBSA project kicked off: Antidoping educational seminars were provided to Judo coaches and athletes at the Centro de Treinamento Paralímpico, in São Paulo.

This first edition, which will be replicated in other IBSA sports events such as Goalball, Blind Football, and Powerlifting, highlighted some important aspects of antidoping such as the prohibited substances list, use request, and parts of the sample collection process. The athletes were given access to some of the equipment used in the process so that they could become acquainted with the dynamics, which is especially important for visually impaired athletes.

Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the United States of America, Switzerland, Sweden, Romania, the Netherlands, and Thailand were among the countries represented at the seminar, which featured four sessions in various languages: one in Portuguese, another in English, and two more in Spanish.

“All the Cuban team went to this seminar about antidoping. It is a very important matter and necessary for all the athletes and staff for their education and preparation. The event went smoothly, with a simple and clear presentation for all and explanations for any doubts about antidoping. It was an excellent idea which enriched everyone moving to eliminate doping in sport towards a clean competition. Congratulations from Cuba to the organiser and we have to say no to doping to save sport with ethical behaviour”, commented Emerito Pérez-Costa, national Cuba team physician.

“I found this seminar very enlightening. It really helped to improve my knowledge of doping, and it’s very important to understand the whole process of collecting samples and what is done with them.” It is also fundamental, especially for the young athletes who still don’t know how things are done. I found the team very interested and made all kinds of questions and cleared their doubts”, added Wilians Araújo, Brazilian judoka.

Juliana Soares, IBSA Antidoping’s committee Educational Officer, enhanced the relevance of this matter: “Since 2021, with the new WADA code, all the sports federations are working so that athletes have their opportunities, like this event, to get information and antidoping education before being asked to collect samples. This is extremely relevant. This way, we have more prepared athletes for the test evaluation and help those involuntarily doped by not knowing the rules and how they work. That is our mission: to strengthen the clean game and protect the clean athletes.”

During the two-day competition, samples were collected from athletes from different countries.