Creating a corporate anti-doping culture: Understanding the role of sport governing bodies

The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) vision to promote a new moral order in sport and new forms of organisation and management through the World Anti Doping code (WADC) amount to creating a new corporate culture. WADC’s emphasis on policy implementation places sport governing bodies (SGB) and managers at the heart of the enterprise. This represents a double challenge: (i) to the organisational culture of SGBs as it entails creating shared systems of meaning that are accepted, internalised, and acted on at every level of an organization, and (ii) to the IOC and the WADA in regard to universality and particularity, where the general organisational difficulty is how they are to operate at a global (universal) level whilst such apparently intractable differences exist at the particular (local) level. This paper employs Morgan’s (1997) metaphor of organisations as cultures to develop an understanding of the process of endorsing a global anti-doping policy. It explores the enactment of the WADC using the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation as a case in point. While a good level of universal approval of WADC has been achieved the main issue remains how to get SGBs practices in line with it

Drugs in sport

This article addresses the controversial issue of the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport. It looks at the legal basis for regulation via the World Anti-Doping Code and the nature of a sports participant's relationship with their governing body and the anti-doping organisations. It explains in the context of proportionality, the measures designed to combat doping in sport and the importance to the Code of the central principle of strict liability. It also, highlights the use of non-analytical positives as a further method of detection of doping violations, whilst taking consideration of the impact of these measures on the human rights of participants

Dopaje en Veterinaria II: caballos y perros

El dopaje se define como el uso de un artificio, potencialmente peligroso para la salud de los deportistas y/o susceptible de mejorar su rendimiento, que figure en la lista anexa al Código Mundial Antidopaje. Los perros y los caballos pueden ser susceptibles de sufrir prácticas de dopaje al participar en disciplinas deportivas, para lo cual existen organismos que legislan y regulan a nivel internacional y nacional la utilización de sustancias, entre los que encontramos: World Anti Doping Agency, Federación Ecuestre Internacional y European Sled Dog Racing Association, y las Federaciones Españolas de Hípica (RFHE), de Deportes de invierno (RFEDI) y de Galgos (FEG). En este trabajo se revisa la normativa que regula y controla el dopaje y la actuación del Veterinario en el control antidopaje en las pruebas deportivas en los que participan animales.Doping is the illicit administration of drugs or other agents to racing animals with the intention of altering their physical performance. Different regulations have been published by international: World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), and the European Sled Dog Racing Association, and spanish agencies: Federaciones Españolas de Hípica (RFHE), de Deportes de invierno (RFEDI) y de Galgos (FEG). Drug treatment of dogs and horses which are used in sport competitions is restricted by the regulations of the anti-doping control and listed in the annex of the World Anti-Doping Code. Existing regulations and the functions of veterinarian-check, general horse-control and doping are reviewed in the present paper

Doping in sport: An analysis of sanctioned UK rugby union players between 2009 and 2015

To inform anti-doping policy and practice, it is important to understand the complexities of doping. The purpose of this study was to collate and systematically examine the reasoned decisions published by UK Anti-Doping for doping sanctions in rugby union in the UK since the introduction of the 2009 World Anti-Doping Code. Case files were content analysed to extract demographic information and details relating to the anti-doping rule violation (ADRV), including individuals’ explanations for how/why the ADRV occurred. Between 2009 and 2015, 49 rugby union players and one coach from across the UK were sanctioned. Over 50% of the cases involved players under the age of 25, competing at sub-elite levels. Reasons in defence of the ADRV focused on functional use and lifestyle factors rather than performance enhancement. An a priori assessment of the ‘need’, ‘risk’ and ‘consequence’ of using a substance was not commonplace; further strengthening calls for increasing the reach of anti-doping education. The findings also deconstruct the view that ‘doped’ athletes are the same. Consequently, deepening understanding of the social and cultural conditions that encourage doping remains a priority

A False Start in the Race Against Doping in Sport: Concerns With Cycling’s Biological Passport

Professional cycling has suffered from a number of doping scandals. The sport’s governing bodies have responded by implementing an aggressive new antidoping program known as the biological passport. Cycling’s biological passport marks a departure from traditional antidoping efforts, which have focused on directly detecting prohibited substances in a cyclist’s system. Instead, the biological passport tracks biological variables in a cyclist’s blood and urine over time, monitoring for fluctuations that are thought to indirectly reveal the effects of doping. Although this method of indirect detection is promising, it also raises serious legal and scientific concerns. Since its introduction, the cycling community has debated the reliability of indirect biological-passport evidence and the clarity, consistency, and transparency of its use in proving doping violations. Such uncertainty undermines the legitimacy of finding cyclists guilty of doping based on this indirect evidence alone. Antidoping authorities should address these important concerns before continuing to pursue doping sanctions against cyclists solely on the basis of their biological passports

WADA’s anti-doping policy and athletes’ right to privacy

In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (Wada) Anti-doping Code, athletes are regularly tested for forbidden doping substances in connection with sport competitions. Their samples are stored for long time, in case new doping detection techniques are developed in the future that might allow finding forbidden substances not detectable at present. As Wada’s ambition is not only to have clean competitions, but also clean athletes, different measures need to be implemented to facilitate testing in-between competitions as well. One of them is making sportspersons fill a form to inform doping controllers about their whereabouts, so that they can reach the athletes and make them undergo unannounced tests. Wada’s anti-doping policy has been widely criticized for violating athletes’ right to privacy. However, this debate is often carried out as if it was crystal clear what kind of right this supposed athletes’ right to privacy is. In this article, the notion of privacy is characterized as a previous step to asking in which regards Wada’s anti-doping policy might turn out to be problematic from the point of view of privacy protection. A preliminary conclusion reached is that the right of privacy is not a single right, but rather a cluster of rights, each one designed to protect different areas of our lives, and each one derived in its turn from other, more fundamental rights. A further conclusion to be advanced in this article is that Wada’s whereabouts policy cannot be condoned by any of the moral philosophical approaches traditionally discussed in connection with privacy