Award-winning clean sport education kicks off in West Coast

Three schools in Greymouth, Hokitika and Westport will be the first in the region to benefit from award-winning clean sport education this month. Around 250 students from Greymouth High School, Westland High School and Buller High School are set to benefit from Drug Free Sport New Zealand’s (DFSNZ) national clean sport education programme, starting with the flagship Good Clean Sport workshop. Delivered by Casie Bowry, a DFSNZ educator, former water polo superstar and three-times World Aquatics Championship competitor, the workshop takes students on a journey through clean sport essentials, covering topics like values and integrity; health and nutrition; and the threats posed by supplements and performance enhancing drugs. 

Drug Free Sport New Zealand Chief Executive Nick Paterson is looking forward to this long-awaited expansion into the region. “We’re thrilled to be bringing our comprehensive education programme into the West Coast for the first time. We want to work with schools across the region to support young athletes to make positive decisions, uphold the integrity of their sports and become champions who continue the tradition of clean sport in New Zealand.”

The Good Clean Sport workshop is part of DFSNZ’s freshly launched Good Clean Sport School Toolkit, a free resource that aims to help start the conversation around clean sport in schools across the country.

“Educating rangatahi while they’re still in school is essential in the fight for clean sport,” Mr Paterson emphasised. “It helps stop our young people becoming vulnerable to behaviours that can lead to doping in the future – things like looking for shortcuts or relying on substances to give them a boost on the field or track.”

The Toolkit is packed with innovative and award-winning educational resources, of which the Good Clean Sport workshop is only the first step. West Coast students have a lot to look forward to. There’s the augmented reality technology that enables them to ‘experience’ the health effects of commonly abused substances, which won the Best Use of Technology in Learning award at LearnX Live! 2020. There’s the e-learning module, Clean Sport 101, which took home the award for Best Free eLearning Resource the same year. There’s even the opportunity for students to walk through the doping control process (athlete drug test) in virtual reality.

As understanding grows of the vital role values-driven sport has on the health and wellbeing of young athletes, so too does the importance of values-driven clean sport education. Taking part in the DFSNZ’s Good Clean Sport workshops will soon put the West Coast’s young sports superstars ahead of the game when it comes to playing safe, fair and having fun.

Watch the Good Clean Sport School Toolkit video and request the resources for FREE at Good Clean Sport School Toolkit.