Be 100% You 100% True: Meet Paracanoe athlete Emma Wiggs

In our new #BeYouBeTrue series in the lead up to Paris 2024, we are continuing to hear from athletes and elite sports personnel about their values, and why clean sport education is a vital part of preparations for a Major Games.

Meet Paracanoe athlete Emma Wiggs. Emma has been to three Paralympic Games - London 2012 (as a sitting volleyball player), Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, picking up three Squeaky ducks (UK Anti-Doping’s Clean Sport Mascot) along the way. Emma is a self-confessed ‘anti-doping geek’ and an ambassador for clean sport - here’s what she had to say…

I’m Emma Wiggs, and I’m 100% moi (me).

I’ve been involved in para-canoe since 2013. My proudest sporting achievements are going to the Paralympic Games in London 2012, getting gold in Rio 2016 and then a gold and silver in Tokyo 2020.

As athletes, we need to be 100% certain about what we are putting in our bodies – that we are making really good choices about what we are taking and the need for it. For me personally, that’s a major part of being an athlete - making sure that the playing field is as level as it possibly can be, and making sure we are competing clean and showing what is possible as clean athletes.

It is vital that everyone does their clean sport education, whether you’re an athlete or part of the support personnel team. We all have a responsibility to uphold the moral integrity of how sport should be played and how sport should be competed. I’ve completed all sorts of anti-doping education, some online, gained some qualifications and resources, and Major Games education.

My advice to young aspiring athletes is to work hard and make good decisions. Keep a bit of balance so you have an awareness of things outside of your sport. Take the opportunity to learn new skills, whether that be on anti-doping or nutrition. Be like a sponge and soak it all up.

The work of UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has been massively important over my career. One of the biggest things they have tried to combat and change is the reporting of doping. I have seen a shift in the education and reassurance that UKAD provides in that it is all of our responsibilities to keep sport clean, and actually there is support available to report things anonymously or confidentially if you have any suspicions of doping.

When you hear examples of doping it is devastating and demoralising. For those of us who campaign for clean sport, we feel cheated. You feel you have missed out and as a whole community it is a continuing fight to keep the awareness up.

Be 100% you, 100% true. Squeaky clean.