Minister for Health, Sussan Ley, has today launched a suite of lesson plans to help high school students learn about sports integrity topics like doping, match-fixing and illicit drug use.

Along with Rio Olympic gold medallist Chloe Esposito, the Minister visited Strathfield Girls High School in Sydney to launch the plans, which target students in years 9 to 12 and emphasise the importance of fair play and clean sport.

“There is no doubt that threats to the integrity of sport around the world have risen in recent years – from doping, to match-fixing, to corruption,” Minister Ley said.

“If we want to protect sport in Australia we all need to understand what those threats are, what factors make sports vulnerable, and what we can do to prevent those threats taking hold,” she said.

“Research shows that attitudes and values are shaped at a young age, so school programs like these ones will go a long way to improving the integrity of Australia’s sporting landscape in years to come.”

The lessons pose ways for students to explore questions like:

• What are the health risks of various banned substances?
• Should drugs in sport be allowed in some circumstances?
• What factors might increase the vulnerability of sports to match-fixing?
• How can illegal gambling corrupt sport?

Activities include asking students to complete mock ‘whereabouts’ diaries to experience what it is like to be an elite athlete, holding a mock anti-doping tribunal for Australian anti-doping cases and designing programs to prevent, detect and sanction the use of illicit drugs in sport.

The lesson plans were jointly developed by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and the National Integrity of Sport Unit (NISU) in response to changes to the national Health and Physical Education curriculum earlier this year.

“The inclusion of sport integrity in the national curriculum is unique worldwide and shows Australia is at the forefront of efforts to protect fair, clean sport,” Minister Ley said.