Olympian Laura Deas supporting anti-doping in bid for clean sport

Olympic bronze medallist Laura Deas knows from personal experience just how difficult it used to be to feedback intelligence about doping suspicions but has urged anyone with information to use the pathways available through UK Anti-Doping (UKAD). Deas' sport, skeleton was rocked by a doping scandal at the Sochi 2014 Olympics when men's gold medallist Alexsandr Tretyakov and women's bronze medallist Elena Nikitina were both stripped of their medals before being restored on appeal.

Ad/> It was part of the reason that Deas has become such an advocate for clean sport, joining the UKAD Athlete Commission after winning her bronze in PyeongChang in 2018. Beijing 2022'I want to do what she did for me' — Crowley to use Ennis-Hill motivation to inspire others14/02/2022 AT 20:42 And after her own experience of raising the alarm, she is pleased to see that the current system is far more accessible for athletes, with UKAD's Protect Your Sport campaign allowing them to share information anonymously through a variety of channels.

Deas explained: «The main reason why I joined the Athletes Commission at UKAD was because I feel really passionate about fair play. »I think I became really aware on a more personal level of the threat of doping in sport as an athlete in the wake of Sochi 2014 and the scandal around that.

I really wanted to do something in a more official capacity to help to drive change and spread that message of the importance of clean sport. It was that which got me thinking about it and the opportunity came up within UKAD and I thought I'd go for it.

«It feels a lot more accessible now and less of a taboo thing to do. UKAD has done a lot of work with their Protect Your Sport campaign to really make it clear to people