Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Even with the documentary, The Last Gold, recently launched in the United States about the drug scandals of the 1970s in competitive swimming and the ongoing issues about doping in sports, there remains difficulties in uncovering the truth among athletes and coaches who are intent on taking drugs and supplements to gain an advantage over their competitors.
With the allure of fame and glory, and the increasing among of money and rewards available to Olympic champions, the allure of drug-taking is concurrently increasing.
But Hajo Seppelt, Antoine Vayer, Mathieu Blanchet, and Sebastian Mondial of SportsLeaks are doing something about unveiling the information purposefully hidden by drug-takers. The SportsLeaks team just announced the launch of www.sportsleaks.com, a platform dedicated to whistleblowing in sports.
“We have come to believe that parts of the world of high-level sports are rife with doping, corruption and cheating. It has been apparent for some time that sports’ internal measures have failed. But with the help of courageous whistleblowers, many scandals have been uncovered by external experts and investigative journalism around the world.”
SportsLeaks.com aims to improve the process of unveiling information and supporting whistleblowers and protecting other insiders – including athletes and teammates – who know the truth. This non-profit project was founded by investigative journalists, experienced sports experts, and specialists in data protection.
“This unique global platform will address all topics related to corruption and doping in sports. With our secure platform, individuals can provide any kind of information – documents, data, simple text, audio or video recordings. SportsLeaks.com and DopingLeaks have been designed to maximize your anonymity and your security, by using state-of-the-art and proven whistleblowing tools.
The SportsLeaks team is cooperating with an international network of experienced journalists and trusted experts. All of them have already helped uncover many scandals in the history of sports. We encourage all the interested journalists with expertise in the coverage of doping and corruption in sports worldwide to contribute to our project and join us – for the sake of transparency, credibility, and truth in international sports.
The website is open for everyone – including and particularly athletes. The contributions of athletes themselves are more than welcome. Everyone who is interested and has knowledge can – and should – provide information.”
For more information, visit www.sportsleaks.com, www.dopingleaks.com, @SportsLeaks.com on Twitter, @SportsLeaks on Facebook.
Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association