Drug Free Sport NZ Delighted With Extra Funding

Drug Free Sport NZ is very satisfied that the importance of its work has been recognised through the allocation of an additional $1 million per year in the 2016 Budget. This has been achieved through the presentation of a strong case with the assistance of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. With the spotlight shining brightly on anti-doping both nationally and internationally, DFSNZ chief executive Graeme Steel says the extra money will go a long way.

“It’s safe to say we’re very pleased with the extra funding and it will enable us to expand our work in the critical areas of education, testing and investigations,” he says.

“We certainly believe we need to broaden our reach into top junior sports and possibly also into other areas of competitive sport beyond the elite level, where there are indications of doping.” 

Mr Steel says the key to getting ‘buy-in’ from athletes to commit to competing clean without the assistance of performance enhancing substances is education at the early stages of an athlete’s career.

“At the moment we hold around 150 education seminars throughout the country and across all codes, from our elite athletes to youth at school sports academies. But we need to extend that,” Mr Steel says.

If anyone is unable to attend a seminar in person, DFSNZ’s new award-winning E-Learning programme offers all of the same information. Mr Steel says the extra funding will allow DFSNZ to expand services and also continue to work closely with other international agencies to combat the global threat of doping in sport which has been so clearly exposed over recent months.