Investigations into doping in sport – when athletes use performance-enhancing drugs either deliberately or inadvertently – regularly hit the headlines.
But Jake Zappia, a member of the FIFA Master course at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), saw his work with Sport Integrity Australia make the news for all the right reasons.
Jake (crouching right) with friends at the Pacific Games for Oceania's elite athletes
After a five-year education program, the incidents of inadvertently doping with supplements in sport fell from 17 cases in 2016/17 to zero in Australia for 2021/22 and 2022/23.
The success was all down to educating sportsmen and women about the potentially career-threatening bans that could be imposed if found to have prohibited substances in their system, as well as building tools for athletes to use to reduce their risk.
Jake was one of many people including education, science, testing, communication and legal teams who all played a role in the success.
Jake said: “People taking supplements that they do not know have a banned substance in them are still looking at a two-to-four-year ban from a sport they have dedicated their entire life to.
“We used to tell athletes simply “don’t use supplements” but that just wasn’t working, so we really had to change our messaging to help them make more informed decisions.
“We were basically educating athletes to make better choices, and giving them tools, like a new Sport Integrity phone app, to help them.
“It is your responsibility to decide what goes in your body no matter how it gets there. We took a much stronger welfare focus when it came to making sure athletes were protected from inadvertent doping.
“From an education perspective it was about being pro-active to make sure we were protecting people as much as we could.
“If you walk into a room full of athletes, none of them should be doping. It is wrong, period. We spoke to athletes about values in sport. If you are going to work hard to get to the very top, do it in the most noble way possible.
“It is, in my opinion, fundamental both to the integrity of sport and attaining a level playing field in any competition and, in particular, at more elite levels where the smallest incremental gains can make a difference.
“My role in education was very much about translating the rules on integrity in sport into plain English for our different audiences so they understand their rights and responsibilities when it came to doping.”
Jake’s experiences, and his ambition to go further in sports management, has now brought him 10,000 miles from Australia to Leicester, where he is now part of the 25th cohort of the prestigious FIFA Master course.
The one-year course, which is co-ordinated by the Centre International d'Etude du Sport (CIES) in Switzerland and is supported by football's world governing body FIFA, involves students dedicating a term of study at DMU's International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC) in the Humanities of Sport before also spending a term at both the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy, and Switzerland's University of Neuchâtel.
The FIFA Master is regarded as one of the world's best sports management courses and, last month, was named by Sports Business International as Europe's top ranked postgraduate sports management course for a record 12th time.
Jake at the King Power with some of his FIFA Master cohort
Jake said: “It is something that has been on my radar for 10 years. I heard about it just before I started working in club level sport
“I had always wanted to study overseas and live and work overseas after that. So, the FIFA Master stood out as an incredible opportunity. At the time I did not think I would have the life skills to get on the course and I also thought about what I would get out of it.
“But then it came to a point during my career where, if I was going to do the course, I would have to crack on. So here I am in Leicester.
“What this course is absolutely doing is providing me with an opportunity to meet talented and skilled people working in a variety of disciplines in sport that can really spark the imagination.
“It is an incredible opportunity and whatever comes of it, I will be thrilled.”
Jake started his career as a news cameraman before moving into sport in media and communications at the Adelaide Crows, a club in the Australian Football League. He then moved to Canberra to start his educational role with Sport Integrity Australia.
As a sports fanatic, Jake is taking advantage of watching top-level sport in Leicester.
He said: “The city is good and it is great to be part of the Leicester community. It is different to what I am probably used to in terms of size - but I am really enjoying it. I’ve enjoyed walking down to the King Power - I saw City’s first win of the season against Bournemouth - and I have also headed over to Welford Road to watch Tigers.
“If there is a ball involved in sport, I am pretty passionate about it.”
Posted on Friday 29 November 2024