Not at elite level: Nichol
people, or ‘weekend warriors’, who do not receive the same amount of education as top-line athletes.
‘‘As far as we’re aware we’re not sitting on a whole lot of cases where our contracted players are part of this,’’ Nichol said. ‘‘It’s very much non-contracted, non-elite athletes who have gone online to a website and rather naively chosen to purchase what are regarded as banned substances.
‘‘I think what you’re talking about is a group of athletes who probably haven’t had any education, are not actually doing it for their sport and arguably is more to do with body image.’’
Purchasing any type of steroids online come with significant health risks, which Nichol feels the general sporting public need to be made more aware of.
He believes the investigation raised an important question around the role of DFSNZ and whether the anti-doping watchdog should be tasked with cleaning up all levels of sport, or just the top end.
‘‘Because if it’s all sport then I think people have been given a glimpse of the massive mountain that you’re dealing with,’’ Nichol said. ‘‘Elite sport is tough enough, and in New Zealand we do it pretty well. But if you want to keep all sport clean it’s a big challenge. Do we want to do it, for sure, but how we go about it is a really interesting discussion.’’