AAG Gives Voice To Sport Integrity Matters

28 June 2023

“By engaging with athletes who truly understand their environment and the pressures of sport, we enhance our capabilities …”

Sport Integrity Australia is committed to learning from athletes’ experiences and knowledge and to giving athletes a voice when it comes to responding to integrity threats in sport.

As part of that commitment, the agency’s Athlete Advisory Group (AAG) met in Canberra last week to help us safeguard the future of Australian sport for generations to come.

Sport Integrity Australia welcomed new AAG member, Paralympian Ella Sabljak, who is also a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency Athlete Council.

Ella, who captained Australia’s U25s women’s wheelchair basketball team (the Devils) to a World Championship silver medal and is a Commonwealth Games silver medallist, is currently the Education Manager at Paralympics Australia.

With more than 15 years in elite sport (first wheelchair basketball, and now wheelchair rugby) at an international level, we are delighted to have Ella join the AAG.

Members discussed anti-doping issues, including a proposed joint project with the Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) Athlete Committee to feed into the 2027 World Anti-Doping Code review and were engaged by our Science and Medicine team as part of the 2024 Prohibited List consultation process. Our executives and visiting executives from DFSNZ joined the group to glean athletes’ views on the anticipated changes to the List.

Other issues discussed at their meeting included gambling in sport in Australia, anti-doping testing education, coaching children, the Annual Update and the new Play by the Rules Start to Talk campaign.

The meeting heard suggestions about our education from the Athletics Australia Athlete Committee, as well as an AIS Supplement Steering Committee request for a simple visual process for athletes to understand the testing procedure and what happens once a sample is taken.

“This meeting was invaluable when it comes to athlete engagement,” said Linda Muir, Director of Sport Partnerships.

“By engaging with athletes who truly understand their environment and the pressures of sport, we enhance our capabilities with informed strategic direction and the ability to shape education strategies through their insights.

“Importantly, we always engage with the AAG when our work is in the planning or preliminary stages, so we genuinely seek their feedback as opposed to sharing a finished product just for them to note.”

Current members of the AAG include: