At the 2026 IWWF World Wakeboard Championships in Rieti, Italy, the Clean Game team was involved in doping control — and one young chaperone reminded us how important the human side of the process really is.
The 2026 IWWF World Wakeboard Championships were held from 3–8 August at Lago del Salto, near Rieti, Italy, bringing together wakeboard athletes from around the world.
For the Clean Game team, it was another opportunity to conduct doping control at a major international sporting event. But it was also a good reminder that doping control is not only about sample collection, laboratories and forms.
It is also about people.
One of those people was Lapo-Hans Schleifer Ciancio, a 21-year-old Italian-German young man who joined the event team and, among his other responsibilities, worked as a chaperone during doping control.
What does a chaperone actually do?
To someone outside anti-doping, the role may sound simple: find the selected athlete and take them to the Doping Control Station.
In reality, it requires considerably more.
Under international anti-doping procedures, once an athlete has been selected for testing, they must be properly notified, informed about their rights and responsibilities and continuously observed from notification until they report to the Doping Control Station. The purpose is both to protect the integrity of the sample collection process and to protect the athlete’s rights.
A good chaperone therefore needs to be clear without being intimidating, friendly without becoming informal, and firm without losing respect for the athlete.
That balance is not always easy.
Lapo understood it immediately
What caught our attention in Rieti was how naturally Lapo understood this balance.
Very little had to be explained twice.
He quickly understood what he could and could not do, how close he needed to remain to the athlete, and why the athlete’s privacy, dignity and feelings had to be respected throughout the process.
More importantly, he knew how to communicate.
He was relaxed with athletes, but never careless about the procedure. He listened to them and respected their individuality, while remaining clear that, once notified, the doping control process had to be completed according to the rules.
For experienced Doping Control Officers, this matters enormously.
The first person an athlete meets during a doping control is very often not the DCO, but the chaperone. That first interaction can influence how the athlete experiences the entire procedure.
Anti-doping is also about communication
Doping control must be rigorous. There can be no shortcuts when sample integrity and fair competition are at stake.
But rigor does not require unnecessary confrontation.
The World Anti-Doping Agency emphasizes that athletes should understand their rights and responsibilities before they ever experience doping control, and that education is an essential part of protecting clean sport.
The same philosophy should apply during testing itself.
A properly trained chaperone is not a security guard and not simply an escort. The chaperone is part of the Sample Collection Personnel and part of the system that ensures that the athlete is notified correctly, continuously observed and treated appropriately throughout the process. WADA guidance specifically highlights attention to detail and the ability to provide athletes with calm and clear direction as important qualities for this role.
Lapo demonstrated exactly that in Rieti.
He may be one of the youngest people working around the doping control station, but he offered a useful lesson:
Good anti-doping is built not only on rules and procedures, but also on people who understand why those rules exist — and who know how to apply them while respecting the athlete.
That is an important part of protecting both clean sport and the people who make sport possible.
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