WBSC conducts anti-doping education programme for U-15 Baseball World Cup athletes

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) conducted a series of anti-doping workshops in partnership with the International Testing Agency (ITA) during the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup 2024 held in Colombia in August.

The educational activity was provided to all 12 teams individually, led by Dr. Saul Saucedo, member of the WBSC Medical Commission and President of the Pan American Anti-Doping Organisation (ORAD-PAN).

"The WBSC is responsible for implementing an effective Anti-Doping Education programme for Baseball, Softball and Baseball5 mandatory by the World Anti-Doping Code," said Dr. Saucedo. "In this particular case, within the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup, the workshops were given to all teams highlighting the principles of values, fair play and the prevention of the use of prohibited substances in sport, in accordance with WADA's International Standard for Education."

Workshops were held in both Barranquilla and Cartagena de Indias, where Dr. Saucedo and a team of experts explained to each team  the principles of fair play and respect in sport, clean sport, equity and inclusion, and the development of life skills and decision-making capability to prevent anti-doping violations.

"For us, the priority is always the health of our athletes, as well as their training in values, raising awareness about anti-doping with a sense of sacrifice, respect for oneself, for the opponent and a competition on equal terms."

The ITA and the WBSC have been collaborating since January 2020 with an increasing degree of delegation to the ITA for independent management of different areas of its anti-doping programme over the past three years. 

Believing that education is essential to any anti-doping initiative, the WBSC introduced its programme to the youngest athletes at the WBSC U-12 Softball World Cup in 2022.