Saint or Sinner?: A Reconsideration of the Career of Prince Alexandre de Merode, Chair of the International Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission, 1967-2002

Bateman M; Beamish R.; Crawford A. G.M; de Merode A; de Merode A; de Merode A; Dimeo P; Fitch K; Hoberman J; Hoberman J; Houlihan B; Houlihan B; Kamuti J; Landry F.; Maier E; Matthew T. Bowers; Miller D; Organizing Committee for the XII Winter Olympic Games at Innsbruck; Organizing Committee of the Games of the XIX Olympiad, Mexico 68; Organizing Committee of the Games of the XX Olympiad, Munich 1972; Organizing Committee of the Games of the XXI Olympiad, Montreal 1976; Organizing Committee of the Games of the XXII Olympiad, Los Angeles 1984; Paul Dimeo; Pellizza J; Pound D; Rogozkin V; Sports Council; Thomas M. Hunt; Todd J.; US Senate Committee on the Judiciary; Voy R.; Waddington I.; ‘No Positive Tests!’; ‘Olympic Wishes for 1981’

Saint or Sinner?: A Reconsideration of the Career of Prince Alexandre de Merode, Chair of the International Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission, 1967-2002

Abstract

This article explores the role of Prince Alexandre de Merode in heading the IOC’s fight against drugs from the 1960s to 2002. History has not served de Merode very well. He has been presented in simplistic ways that emerge from context rather than evidence – as either a saint or a sinner. IOC-sanctioned accounts cast him in the mould of the saint: a moral and intelligent man who saved sports from doping. In contrast, sports academics have tended to portray him as a sinner: an ineffectual leader who did not develop either the testing systems or the punishments required to prevent doping and who deliberately concealed evidence of high-profile doping cases. This article assesses both representations before presenting information to support a richer and more complicated interpretation