Despite criticisms around their operations over the years, newly appointed chairperson for the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) Debby Ann Brown Salmon says she intends to maintain the high standards set at the organisation and build a better working relationship with Jamaican athletes.

The chairperson role was vacant following the departure of Alexander Williams last September following his seven-year tenure at the helm of the commission.

However, Brown Salmon, who was a board director since 2016, was convinced to accept the role in January after her initial hesitancy.

“The outgoing chairman [Williams] made the recommendation and he thought I would do a better job than him but that’s up for discussion. But I was pretty honoured when the recommendation came from him and it sort of helped me to make up my mind to take up the position,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“I knew I had big shoes to fill but I knew also that it wouldn’t have been a difficult one because I have a very committed and dedicated team. I knew I would have the support, so the transition wasn’t a very difficult one, I was very much welcomed,” Brown Salmon added.

JADCO has come under public scrutiny for its involvement in high-profile cases with some of the island’s top athletes, but Brown Salmon believes they have been performing well.

“We are in the news all the time, some people might say for good and bad, but it’s not bad. What it shows is that we are doing our job, JADCO is doing its job. Some people, athletes in particular, would refer to us as the policing body, but that’s because we’re doing our job. Our job is to maintain a free, anti-doping environment and athletes who remain responsible and accountable, because Jamaica remains on the world stage in sport as number one, all eyes are on us,” she said.

She also says other anti-doping bodies across the region see JADCO as a great example to follow.

“We have set the bar so high that others around us want to replicate. One of the things [World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold] Banka consistently says about JADCO is that we are number one in the Caribbean. From I’ve been on the board since 2016, that’s what we’ve set out to do; to be the primary organisation that athletes and others can look up to and copy our standards and our modus operandi,” Brown Salmon shared. .

In January, Banka, during his visit in Jamaica, pledged US$225,000 ($35 million) to JADCO and other anti-doping agencies in the Caribbean, which is a 50 per cent increase in WADA’s financial contribution to the region.

Brown Salmon believes that this will greatly enhance JADCO’s operations.

“It is a boost, any help we get is a good boost. We’re a government organisation, we can’t go out and solicit funds. For the president to make that commitment, it’s a good thing. How far will it go? We don’t know yet but we do know it will go towards boosting our education programme. We continue to want to do that so we will make the best use of what we get from them,” she said.

While admitting it will be difficult, Brown Salmon says she hopes to change JADCO’s reputation among athletes and the public.

“We try to sell ourselves as not what they want to see us as — which is the police coming for them, but that we are ready and available to answer questions, to assist them and help them along the way. We are representing our country, and we know how our athletes are viewed on the world market and we don’t want any negative things attached to the reputation of our athletes. We want to build on that and remain the premier organisation that the world looks up to and wants to model,” she said.

Brown Salmon also shared that she wants stakeholders at all levels to fully commit to JADCO’s approach to education, which she believes will provide many benefits.

“Recently, we’ve started to go into our primary schools. We recognise we have to start from there so we want to be out more in the schools, getting the schools on board. We want to see more schools wanting us to educate their young athletes. Sports in Jamaica is a big thing. We are known on the world map because of the kind of athletes we promote but we don’t want to promote just (high) performing athletes, we want to put out athletes who are knowledgeable, educated, know the rules and are responsible. We also want parents to also be responsible for their children’s health once they have athletes in their household,” she said.