Winter games athletes team up with USADA to promote clean sprort

Olympics

Thu, Jan  21, 2010 - By Erin Hannan

COLORADO SPRINGS (January 20, 2010) – USADA announces the launch of its “I COMPETE CLEAN because…” campaign, the organization’s fourth clean sport campaign. Heading into the Winter Games in Vancouver, this public service effort aims to encourage athletes and fans of all ages to take a proactive stand for clean and healthy competition.

Developed in collaboration with seven of America’s inspirational winter Olympic and Paralympic athletes, the campaign promotes the reasons these athlete role models advocate competing the right way – without cheating and free of performance-enhancing substances. High-impact and personal messages remind us that sport, played true, has the unique and powerful ability to teach positive life lessons, instill good values, and unite people like nothing else in our society.

USADA’s mission serves and supports America’s clean athletes by preserving the integrity of competition, inspiring a commitment to the core principles of true sport, and protecting the rights of U.S. athletes to compete healthy and clean. Through initiatives like I COMPETE CLEAN because… USADA continues to work toward the prevention of doping in sport, and inspire the replacement of such behavior with positive, respectful competition.

The athletes participating in I COMPETE CLEAN because… serve as passionate advocates for the mission of protecting clean sport, and have voluntarily committed their participation in allegiance to the principle of fair play. In this role, these athletes serve as representatives of their sports and the overwhelming majority of America’s Olympic athletes who compete clean and pursue true achievement. USADA is encouraging everyone to make this same pledge by visiting the I COMPETE CLEAN section of the USADA website at www.USADA.org/ICompeteClean.

Through video, posters, postcards, Internet ads, promotional materials, and the online Pledge for clean sport, the multi-media campaign shares what drives and compels true heroes to train day after day, year after year, putting in all the hard and often painful work necessary for sport success. What motivates them to remain true to the call of clean sport, even when shortcuts exist?

Of the campaign and its message, Lindsey Vonn (Alpine Skiing) said, “I hold myself accountable. You know, it’s not just you out there. You’re representing your country. You’re representing everyone that’s helped you along the way.” She added, “I want my parents, my grandparents, and my family to be proud of me.”

Julie Chu (Ice Hockey) poignantly summed it up, “We want to take care of ourselves and take care of each other, and the best way to do that is by not doping.”

The athletes appearing in the campaign are:

• Tim Burke (Biathlon)
• Julie Chu (Ice Hockey)
• Rachael Flatt (Figure Skating)
• Erin Hamlin (Luge)
• Trevor Marsicano (Speedskating)
• Augusto “Goose” Perez (Paralympic Wheelchair Curling)
• Lindsey Vonn (Alpine Skiing)

USADA is pleased to have support and collaborative relationships for this campaign with a number of entities who embrace the anti-doping movement, including the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and many of the sport National Governing Bodies.

A comprehensive micro-site at www.USADA.org/ICompeteClean provides an interactive platform for viewers to engage with the athlete-members and to personally take the pledge for clean sport.