Book of Abstracts - International Network of Doping Research 2019 Conference - 22.-23. August 2019 Aarhus University, Denmark
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International Network of Doping Research
2019 Conference
WADA’s 20th Anniversary
22.-23. August 2019
Aarhus University, Denmark
Book of AbstractsBook of Abstracts – INDR 2019
Table of Contents
Keynote Abstracts 4
Susan Backhouse 4
John Gleaves 4
John Hoberman 5
Olivier de Hon 6
Barrie Houlihan and Dag Vidar Hanstad 6
Ali Jawad 7
Conference Abstracts 8
Jesper Andreasson 8
Jesper Andreasson and Ellen Sverkersson 8
Cornelia Blank, Matthias Gumpenberger, Katharina Gatterer, Verena Stühlinger, Magdalena Flatscher-Thöni and Wolfgang
Schobersberger 9
Ask Vest Christiansen 10
Julie Demeslay 10
Paul Dimeo 11
Bertrand Fincoeur and Elisa Gajowski 11
Katharina Gatterer, Matthias Gumpenberger, Marie Overbye, Wolfgang Schobersberger and Cornelia Blank 12
Alison Heather 13
April Henning, Bertrand Fincoeur and Fabien Ohl 13
Bengt Kayser 14
Jörg Krieger 14
Emmanuel Macedo 15
David McArdle 16
Lamine Redouane Mekacher, Fadhila Toudeft and Mohamed Azzouz 16
2Verner Møller 17
Werner Pitsch 17
Werner Pitsch 18
Anna Qvarfordt 19
Ian Ritchie 19
Bertrand Stoffel 20
Patrick Trabal and Ekain Zubizarreta 21
Anders Schmidt Vinther 21
Marjolaine Viret 22
Jules Woolf 22
Ekain Zubizarreta 23
3Keynote Abstracts
Susan Backhouse
School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, UK
Contentious policies and practice: challenges and opportunities researching (anti-)
doping in sport Carnegie
Abstract
Research, policy and practice on the complex social problem of doping in sport is a contentious and contested
field. Consequently, it requires collaborative researcher-decision-maker partnerships in order to enhance the
richness, relevance and real-world applicability of empirical research findings. Accordingly, co-produced
knowledge better facilitates the implementation of research informed policy and practice by addressing the
relevance gap in research. Yet, co-production of knowledge in the context of anti-doping can be challenging
because researchers and policy-makers often work to different timeframes, have different priorities, and staff
movement may weaken or disrupt the programme of research. During this presentation, I will reinforce the notion
that social and behavioural scientists are a vital part of the sporting ecosystem through their study of the manner
in which people behave and influence the world around them. By positioning them as a vital contributor, rather
than a parasite of sports organisations, I will speak of the value of working with anti-doping policy and practice
communities in order to bring about change in the anti-doping system. Working with the anti-doping community
requires an appreciation of the lived experience of our research stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, education
developers) and a commitment to drawing upon their tacit knowledge to highlight relevant research questions that
we might otherwise neglect to ask. Critical reflexivity also helps us understand the complexities and dynamics of
(anti-)doping research and the bounded realities of anti-doping policy and practice so that we can contribute to
improved outcomes and achievable solutions in the system. Finally, I will speak to the importance of building trust
and legitimacy in the system if we want to ‘speak truth to power’. These points will be illustrated through our own
multi-stakeholder programme of research, including (i) commissioned research projects in partnership with
national governing bodies, (ii) multi-stakeholder projects involving academics and anti-doping education
developers and (iii) intervening within the anti-doping and sporting system through programme delivery.
John Gleaves
California State University, Fullerton, USA
The United States Federal Government Vs. Lance Armstrong: Determining Who Knew
What and When They Knew It
Abstract
In May of 2013, lawyers for Lance Armstrong invited me to provide testimony in the fraud case between
Armstrong and the U.S. Government. The fraud case alleged that Armstrong’s doping coupled with his public
denials of doping defrauded his sponsor, the U.S. Postal Service, and consequently American citizens. If found
guilty of fraud, Armstrong would have to repay three times the total sponsorship U.S. Postal had paid the team, a
sum nearing $100,000,000.00 USD.
Serving as both a “Summary Witness” and “Expert Witness,” my testimony was meant to illustrate what was
publicly known (and knowable) about doping in cycling. Specifically, I was asked to offer an expert opinion on
three questions: (1) whether the use of performance enhancing substances was widespread in the sport of
professional cycling, including during United States Postal Service’s (“USPS”) sponsorship of the cycling team; (2)
whether the USPS employees with responsibility for the cycling sponsorship could and should have known, or
4knew, that professional cyclists, including cyclists on the USPS cycling team, were using performance enhancing
substances; and (3) whether, during its sponsorship of the cycling team, the USPS had access to information
regarding the use of performance enhancing substances by professional cyclists, and also by members of the USPS
cycling team, and did anything to investigate further. Answers to these three questions would help determine
whether Armstrong had met the legal standard for fraud.
In preparing this testimony, a number of methodological and epistemological questions arose. Because doping
occurred in secret, efforts to prove what people knew or could have known about doping presented a number of
methodological challenges. Moreover, those whose knowledge mattered most—staff of the U.S. Postal Service
and cyclists for the U.S. Postal Service team—had stakes in remembering or not remembering what they knew
about doping in cycling. Navigating these challenges revealed potentially useful methodological approaches to
understanding and describing doping behaviors. This presentation will attempt to outline how I went about
answering these questions and what conclusions I ultimately offered the court.
John Hoberman
University of Texas, Austin, USA
WADA, the IOC, and the Russians: Can Anti-Doping Survive in the Era of Putin?
Abstract
Over the past several years the politics of international sports governance, and its affiliated anti-doping efforts,
have been subverted by the de facto dictator of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, in conjunction with his
conflicts, and subsequent reconciliations, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-
Doping Agency (WADA).
Following Russian failures at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, an enraged Putin resolved to
produce a 2014 Sochi Winter Olympiad that would compensate for the disgrace of Vancouver. Once it had been
uncovered, the state-sponsored doping conspiracy that helped to produce Russian success at Sochi compelled the
IOC and WADA to suspend Russian sports organizations’ membership in the “Olympic Family.” The question
now was how and when — and, conceivably, whether — Russia’s readmission to the Olympic system might be
achieved.
The IOC’s capitulations to the Russians in 2014 and 2018 confirm both the longtime moral bankruptcy of the
IOC and the special role Putin and his ties with IOC-President Bach and other international sports officials have
come to play in the politics of the international anti-doping campaign. Putin is the most powerful of the political
authoritarians who occupy an increasing number of influential positions in global sports organizations. What is
more, Putin has injected an unprecedented gangster element into anti-doping. In February 2016, two former
executives at RUSADA dropped dead without explanation. The Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov fled
to the United States fearing assassination by Putin’s agents and is in witness protection. The young Russian
whistleblowers Vitaly Stepanov, his wife Yulia Stepanova, and their small son are also in the U.S. witness
protection program. It is widely speculated that Putin has sent police agents to find and harm these Russian exiles.
In February 2018, WADA announced it could not protect anti-doping whistleblowers.
This humiliating concession to Putin pointed to the steady decline of WADA’s stature — the only organization
that can (given a determined leadership) stand up to the IOC and its traditional authoritarian allies. History shows
that the IOC has never encountered a dictatorship with which it will not do Olympic business, and the current
period is no exception to this rule.
WADA’s readmission of Russia to international competition in September 2018 has been widely criticized as a
betrayal of anti-doping and of clean athletes.
In January 2018, WADA’s foundational president Dick Pound had criticized the IOC for not punishing Russia
strongly enough for its Olympic doping. A year later, however, Pound denounced criticism of WADA’s latest
capitulation to the Russians — ignoring its own deadlines for Russian compliance — as the work of a “lynch
mob.” The decisions by Pound and WADA to accommodate Russian intransigence signal the end of WADA’s
5effective authority and the further ascension of authoritarian politicians and amoral sports bureaucrats to the upper
echelons of global sports governance. In these dire circumstances, the anti-doping project is doomed to fail.
Olivier de Hon
COO, Dopingautoriteit, NL
Everybody wants the world to change, so how should anti-doping?
Abstract
There are currently 7.7 billion people living on earth. At the time of the Rio Olympic Games, an estimated 47%
of those people had some interest in sport. Moreover, a decent percentage of those sports enthusiasts have the
luxury to actually think about the rules that govern sport, how they came about, and how they might be changed
for the better. The crème de la crème of these sports thinkers are gathering in Aarhus every two years.
At such gatherings, however, one commonly will see two scholars with two totally different views on the future
of sports and sport governance. Such collisions may seem to be counterproductive at first, but they can also be
the start of something better.
Let me state my view on doping policies clearly: I support the core of the current anti-doping regulations. Four
years ago at the INDR conference, I tried to explain why ‘Spirit of Sport’ may be a vague term, but at the same
time the term represents the true essence of what we are trying to protect with these regulations. Sport is worthy
of protection.
I have the privilege to work as the Chief Operating Officer with Doping Authority Netherlands, where I have
the opportunity to put these values into practice. Drawing from this experience, with the occasional luxury to step
aside from the day-to-day workload and rethink the current state of affairs in anti-doping, I will present my views
on worthwhile changes in the current World Anti-Doping Programme and how these may be brought about. I will
especially focus on the effectiveness of doping substances, the burdens associated with doping controls and the
risks of unintentional anti-doping rule violations. I look forward to the unavoidable collisions that will follow so
we can create better future policies.
Barrie Houlihan and Dag Vidar Hanstad
Loughborough University, UK & Norwegian School of Sport Science, NOR
The effectiveness and performance of the World Anti-Doping Agency: a framework for
analysis
Abstract
Although there are a number of studies of the effectiveness of the global anti-doping regime less attention has
been paid to the performance and effectiveness of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as the lead
organization within the policy regime. The aim of the paper is to design a framework for the analysis of WADA’s
performance and effectiveness and to utilize the framework to provide an assessment of the impact of the Agency
within the broader policy regime. The framework identifies a series of structural and contextual dimensions. The
structural factors analysed are: the formal competencies granted to the international organization (IO) and the
clarity of the IO mission; the degree of regime embeddedness and exclusivity; organizational cohesion and design;
leadership quality; resource availability; and stakeholder involvement. The main external or contextual factors are:
scientific or technological developments; economic developments; position on the policy agenda and competing
policy concerns; the cost/benefit of political support; and public attitudes. It is argued that the analytical framework
enables a rounded and effective assessment of the contribution of WADA to the global anti-doping regime.
Specifically it allows an assessment of WADA to be made from two distinct perspectives: the first focuses on its
6performance and effectiveness in terms of the objectives that it has set for itself or which have been set for it by
its principals while the second focuses on the performance of WADA in comparison with other similar IOs.
Ali Jawad
Paralympic Powerlifter, UK
Athlete Representation within Anti-Doping – A Proposal
Abstract
In recent times, anti-doping has been a prevalent topic within the sporting landscape. International confidence
within the anti-doping system is at an all-time low. The disconnect between WADA and the global athlete
community continue to increase. There has been a big uprising in the athlete voice and especially athletes are
uniting in demanding transparency, honesty, and independence within WADA, when vital decisions are
implemented that affect athletes and clean sport.
Throughout this disconnect, there has been significant debate on how the athlete voice fit within the anti-
doping landscape. At present, WADA has an Athlete Commission, which is alleged to represent the athlete voice
within the organisation. However, WADA decide the athletes that are on the commission and they are thus not
elected by their fellow athletes. The commission has no voting powers on the foundation board, as they are
considered an advisory group.
This has led for calls that athletes should have voting rights on the foundation board for key decisions that
have implications on clean athletes, which has led to much resistance by some organisations. Another debate to
surface through athlete groups is the opportunity for athletes to vote for the next president of WADA. At the
moment, athletes rely on sport politicians/administrations to vote on their behalf.
WADA constantly claims to be athlete centred, to protect clean athletes and clean sport. However, athletes
have no voting rights for key decisions, they are unable to vote for the next president, and are criticised by the
authorities within the media. The question thus arises; is WADA then more driven by politics than by a sincere
interest in protecting its number one stakeholder?
7Conference Abstracts
Jesper Andreasson
Linnaeus University, SWE
(Un)Becoming a fitness doper: Negotiating the meaning of illicit drug use in a gym and
fitness context
Abstract
The widespread availability of doping and its growing prevalence among fitness groups has contributed greatly to
the realisation of an emergent public health issue. Emanating from an ethnographic study in Sweden, the purpose
of this study is to describe and analyse the processes involved in becoming and ‘unbecoming’ a fitness doping user.
The study employs a cultural and sociological perspective as its theoretical framework, and discusses how the
participating users gradually develop their knowledge about the drugs and how the process of becoming a user is
negotiated in relation to ideas and ideals concerning health, gender, and individual freedom and Swedish law.
Regarding exit processes, (re)entering into what is perceived to be an ordinary ‘normal’ life, is seldom a
straightforward process. To understand the complex and sometimes complicated transition processes involved in
becoming respectively unbecoming a fitness doper, the results highlight the limitations of using stage models for
understanding exit process as heuristic tools. Furthermore, when constructing prevention strategies and anti-
doping campaigns, there is a need to address and possible rethink the hegemonic separation, between doping in
sports and doping in gym and fitness culture, possibly extending WADA jurisdiction.
Jesper Andreasson and Ellen Sverkersson
Linnaeus University, SWE
A new doping demography? Female PEID users in the context of online
communication
Abstract
Internationally, WADA, NADOs, and different public health organizations conduct fairly comprehensive
antidoping measures. As a consequence, numerous ‘new’ ways to learn about and access these types of drugs have
emerged. Different internet communities, for example, have become part of a new self-help culture in which mostly
men, can anonymously approach these substances. But times are changing and women are increasingly engaging
in drug using practices. Using a netnographic approach, the aim of this study is to describe and analyse how female
users of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIED) approach, understand and negotiate their use, and relate
it to existing preventative measures. The study will focus on an online community called Flashback, and adopts a
constructionist approach, investigating how particular subject positions (identities) and drug use strategies are
created within a specific ‘community of practice’. The results show that there is an increasing amount of knowledge
that not only targets but is also developed by and for women concerning PIED use. Female users are gradually
becoming more integrated into the online doping community. A changing doping demography and the online
offer of PEIDs will be a great challenge in the development of future supranational, and online, prevention
strategies and anti-doping campaigns.
8Cornelia Blank, Matthias Gumpenberger, Katharina Gatterer, Verena Stühlinger,
Magdalena Flatscher-Thöni and Wolfgang Schobersberger
University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, AUT
Doping Sanctions in Sport – Athletes’ Support Personnel’s Knowledge and Perception
of Appropriateness
Abstract
Background:
The new WADC 2015 acknowledged the demand to react to the complexity of doping and puts more emphasis
on roles and responsibilities of athletes’ support personnel (ASP). Austria implemented more rigorous anti-doping
legislation in 2007. Against this legal background, knowledge about doping rules and its consequences is essential
to protect not only oneself, but also athletes from non-compliant behavior. Besides, trustworthiness and
appropriateness of sanctioning systems might have a direct effect on athletes and athletes’ support personnel
compliance. Thus, this study aims at assessing current knowledge among Austrian coaches about their obligations
and possible (legal) consequences as well as the level of perceived appropriateness and trustworthiness of the
applicable (legal) sanctions and the control system.
Methods:
We applied a cross-sectional approach using a paper-pencil questionnaire. The instrument consisted of four parts
including a case study, items relating to the perceived appropriateness and trustworthiness of implemented rules
as well as additional socio-demographic information.
Results:
In total, 57 coaches (at all levels) with a mean age of 32.4±10.6 years returned the questionnaire. Overall, 18% of
these coaches did not know they can be banned from sport. Almost half of and more than half them were not
aware of potential criminal- and civil-law consequences respectively. No legal consequences at all for severe ASP
misconduct have been indicated by 9 coaches, because they either “never heard of any” or stated that “it is in the
responsibility of the athlete”. More than half of the coaches who returned the questionnaire thought that
consequences were too weak.
Conclusion:
Apparently, not all legal consequences are entirely clear to Austrian coaches questioned in our study, indicating the
need for further support and legal training. For specific misconduct implemented legal sanctions are sometimes
even perceived too mild. Apparently, coaches consider doping as severe image damage, appearing to be one of the
more important deterrent effects. Overall, a clear anti-doping attitude was recognizable in the sample of Austrian
coaches, but education should focus more intensively on roles and responsibilities and its related legal
consequences.
Acknowledgment: This project is funded by Tyrolean Science Fund
9Ask Vest Christiansen
Aarhus University, DEN
Doping in elite sport, recreational sport and gyms. How different, how similar?
Abstract
For many years, only doping in elite sport had the publics’, the sporting bodies and the politicians’ attention.
However, in recent decades, doping in gyms and recreational sport has become more prominent. As a reaction,
more countries are developing strategies to fight the use of doping in lower league sports as well as image and
performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) in gyms. For this reason, it has also become more important to understand
where the various phenomena are alike and where they are different. While politicians and NADOs may not
recognise it, common sense suggests that a one-size-fits-all-approach is unlikely to be successful. Therefore, if
interventions are created, they should be based on knowledge on the various populations’ motives for initiating,
continuing and for ceasing use. This however, is not an easy task. On the one end of the scale, we may find the
shot-putter using anabolic steroids for purely performance enhancing purposes, trying to win an Olympic medal.
On the other, the 19-year-old student using the same drug for purely aesthetic reasons, trying to win his peers’
respect or an intimate partner. In between, we may find the rugby player finding inspiration among the
bodybuilders in his local gym, or the 55-year-old CEO wanting to win a local bike race in his age category for
nothing but a bunch of flowers. The paper examines the differences and similarities between various types of drug
use associated with sport, with the aim of identifying to what extent, it makes sense to categorise the use as being
of the same sort and hence how interventions and regulations could be anchored.
Julie Demeslay
Paris Nanterre University, FR
The fight against doping at the international level: Some criticisms of global governance
Abstract
Since 1999, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has brought together representatives of the Olympic
Movement and public authorities, with its main mission to harmonise the regulations of this plurality of actors.
We propose to describe and analyze the work of the protagonists in this task of harmonisation since the end of
the 1990s. It stresses a need to stabilise materials, devices and forms of collaboration with a minimum of
reversibility and to propose a democratic work that allows to question the previous choices. From then on, this
normative activity which aims to put an end to disparities, has opened the door to the criticisms of the present
situation and the change. What are those criticisms exactly about? What are their goal in this process of
harmonisation? What is their significance in implementing the global governance? To answer these questions, we
will establish our approach in continuity with the work of Boltanski (1990), but even more in those of
Chateauraynaud (2007) whose attention is particularly focused on the genesis and fate of the arguments of the
protagonists, and, in the field of sport, those of Trabal (2009) in particular when he analyzes the weight of criticism
in the adjustments of anti-doping devices. Based on the criticisms voiced by the actors in the process of
harmonising regulations of the fight against doping, we will put into perspective how to articulate in the
denunciation of axiological principles, devices and practical considerations. We will show that the experience that
the protagonists make of this new form of anti-doping regulation, leads them to question the pillars (Pérez, 2003)
of governance in a more general way, with regard to the consequences of the choices made and of their ways of
apprehending the future on the basis of these choices. Our presentation will deal in particular with criticisms
relating to interference, lack of expertise and transparency, and as well as with the elusive environment. At the end
of the first twenty years of the Agency's existence, these objects of denunciation reflect the long-term existence of
10a long chain of delegation that calls into question the consideration of the local element in a globalising normative
process.
Paul Dimeo
University of Stirling, Scotland, UK
Who cares about sanctioned athletes?
Abstract
Twenty years of globally organised policy has produced a long list of ruined careers and reputations. WADA insists
that all athletes are under their authority for the duration of their competitive or coaching career. Athletes must
follow many complex rules and obey certain stringent measures such as testing, whereabouts, reporting of all
medical drug use, getting TUEs and so on. Falling afoul of the anti-doping regime is is a key point of departure
for an athlete. They have crossed a line and are hung out to dry. Even where there are mitigating circumstances
they become persona non grata, facing unemployment, damaged reputation, and an uncertain future. WADA
shows no interest in their health, well-being, or their pathway for returning to sport. There is nothing in the WADC
about managing the process of sanctions in ways that might help athletes.
The formal punishments are often accompanied by informal sanctions: criticism, public humiliation and
vilification, stigma, shame – social forces that impinge upon the sanctioned athlete. These can significantly reduce
their sense of belonging and purpose, leading to alienation from established social and institutional networks. The
combination of time away from sport, loss of earnings, and personal identity issues have led to some athletes
struggling with depression. Some sanctioned athletes have even attempted or committed suicide.
The experiences of athletes facing a career ending ban, serving a ban hoping to return, or facing negative
reactions when returning, are a direct effect of WADA’s deterrence strategy. However, neither WADA nor any
other organisation has created a support system for sanctioned athletes. In most cases, nothing is done to offer
them support, even if their circumstances were innocuous, misinformed, or they were forced to dope by a coach,
parent, or doctor. Or indeed if they wish to become whistle-blowers, or active anti-doping campaigners. There are
no organised rehabilitation efforts, and little if any empathy. The media hype surrounding doping cases is accepted
and not criticised.
This presentation provides several case studies to demonstrate the disproportionate, irrational and sometimes
inhumane consequences of anti-doping. It then reviews the governance of anti-doping, arguing that the creation
of a global agency by Governments and sports organisations has allowed athletes’ rights to be diminished compared
to other citizens because of testing, strict liability and arbitration processes. Moreover, athletes facing a sanction
are not supported by sports organisations because they are labelled as cheats. As such, it remains unclear how
better systems can be put in place which protect, support and rehabilitate sanctioned athletes.
Bertrand Fincoeur and Elisa Gajowski
University of Lausanne, CH
Fighting in a Cage, Doping Without Borders? Analysis of Doping in Mixed Martial Arts
Abstract
Background:
The doping issue in combat sports has received scant attention from the scholarly community. Mixed Martial Arts
(MMA) is a fast-growing sport worldwide based on techniques from various combat sports. However, MMA
umbrella organizations are not yet signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code.
11Methods:
At the time of the abstract submission (ongoing research project), 18 qualitative interviews had been conducted in
France and Switzerland among MMA athletes at recreational and elite level.
Results:
Provisional results provide some evidence that 1/ there is a widespread culture of tolerance towards both legal and
illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and athletes do not really make any difference between them, 2/ patterns of
use are unprofessional in nature (i.e., without medical supervision, mainly based on peers’ experience), as are many
other aspects in MMA (e.g., training, nutrition, recovery from injuries), 3/ pharmacological cultures within the
various combat sports are largely intertwined. This has implications on the existing debate on the regulation of
MMA competitions, and on the professionalization process of MMA. We will then conclude on further
implications for both doping research and anti-doping policy.
Katharina Gatterer, Matthias Gumpenberger, Marie Overbye, Wolfgang Schobersberger
and Cornelia Blank
University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, AUT and University of Stirling, Scotland, UK
Analyzing WADA’s vision of harmonized doping prevention
Abstract
Background:
One of the main principles of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is harmonizing anti-doping approaches
to protect the athletes’ right to participate in drug-free sport. Regarding primary doping prevention measures there
exists little research that analyzes anti-doping activities provided by NADOs. This study aims to give an overview
of doping prevention programs offered by selected NADOs worldwide to provide information to what extent the
idea of harmonized doping prevention activities has been implemented.
Methods:
We collected data on prevention activities offered by 64 NADOs. Prevention activities were assigned to 5
categories (knowledge-focused, affective-focused, social skills, life skills, ethics and values-based) based on a report
prepared for the European Commission by Backhouse and colleagues. We additionally searched the internet for
the specific country’s doping prevention activities. The quality of prevention activities was assessed by 3
independent researcher using a modified Visual Analogue Scale (0-10) based on the education guidelines from
WADA.
Results:
In total, 37 (57.81%) NADOs returned the survey. More than 50% offer doping prevention activities including all
5 categories. Based on the internet material and the survey data, we performed a quality assessment for all
investigated NADOs (n=64). Results show that the knowledge-focused approach is offered by most NADOs is
of high quality (VAS >7). VAS scores for the other categories were not as high.
Conclusion:
NADOs offer a variety of doping prevention activities mostly focused on providing knowledge. Values-based
education is only offered by few NADOs. Possible reasons indicated by NADOs were be the lack of sufficient
funding and lack of cooperation with other organizations. In addition, a lack of experience on how to implement
values-based education might be possible. Currently, WADA’s guidelines for doping prevention activities appear
to only partially succeed in supporting the development of values-based education within their member NADOs.
12Alison Heather
University of Otago, NZ
The extra percentage: testosterone and female athletic performance
Abstract
The perception of “fairness” is essential for any sporting event and fundamental to what should be the clear
division between male and female competition. There is an indisputable sex difference in athletic performance
with males advantaged by superior strength, speed and endurance. Many physiological parameters influence athletic
performance including body composition, skeletal structure and cardiorespiratory fitness, all of which are sexually
dimorphic and, in addition, strongly influenced by sex hormones. Notably, the puberty-associated increase in
testosterone correlates with the onset of superior male athletic performance. Testosterone concentrations in
healthy young males (7.7- 29.4 nmol/L) do not overlap with those of healthy young women (0-1.7 nmol/L), even
when considering women with polycystic ovary syndrome in which mild hyperandrogenism is characteristic (up to
4.8 nmol/L). Because of this clear separation, testosterone levels are used to define male and female athletes.
Currently, the International Olympic Committee allows male-to-female transgender athletes to compete in the
female division as long as their testosterone levels areGrey zones are increasingly becoming important in the daily lives of cyclists and in the way cycling is sold to fans
and sponsors. The drive for “clean” sport has led to a new brand of puritanism. While anti-doping wishes to work
only in black and white this denies the imperfections of reality, which is full of shades of grey.
Bengt Kayser
University of Lausanne, CH
Why WADA should include placebo and nocebo to the List
Abstract
WADA's Code stipulates that there are three criteria to put something on the List of forbidden substances and
methods with the principle of a minimum of two out of three criteria to be met for inclusion. These are: Medical
or other scientific evidence, pharmacological effect or experience that the substance or method, alone or in
combination with other substances or methods, has the potential to enhance or enhances sport performance;
Medical or other scientific evidence, pharmacological effect or experience that the use of the substance or method
represents an actual or potential health risk to the athlete; WADA’s determination that the use of the substance or
method violates the ‘spirit of sport’ described in the introduction to the Code. There are documented placebo and
nocebo effects of certain substances and methods in the realm of sports performance. Even though WADA does
not communicate on the exact reasons to put things on the List, by looking at what is on the List and interpreting
the discourse surrounding the ‘spirit of sport’ criterion it is argued that substances and methods with documented
placebo and nocebo effects meet two out the three criteria and should be included on the List. Placebo effects
meet the performance and ‘spirit of sport’ criteria; nocebo effects meet the health and ‘spirit of sport’ criteria. This
reductio ad absurdum illustrates the lack of robustness of WADA's three criteria framework and reinforces the
calls for a change in the way the List is established and maintained.
Jörg Krieger
Aarhus University, DEN
A Shift in Focus and its Consequences: WADA’s Health, Medical and Research
Committee
Abstract
When the international sporting community - under pressure of public authorities - created the World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA) in 1999, the consequences for the global fight against doping went beyond a re-shifting of
responsibilities on the highest sport political level. Rather, WADA’s establishment had direct consequences for
those previously involved in creating and overseeing technical and administrative procedures in anti-doping. This
accounts especially for leading anti-doping scientists, who had shaped the work of the IOC Medical Commission
decisively from the end of the 1960s onwards (Krieger, 2016). With the installation of WADA and the
organisation’s responsibility for the organisation and harmonization of the global anti-doping fight, the role of the
scientists in the IOC Medical Commission became increasingly marginalized. Instead, the scientists were consulted
by WADA and joined various WADA bodies such as its Health, Medical & Research Committee (HRMC).
This paper explores the work of the HMRC and its role in the policy- and decision-making of WADA in the
period between 2001 and 2018. A specific focus lies on the contributions of the Laboratory Expert Group.
Drawing on the official minutes of the HMRC and other WADA committees, internal views and debates are
assessed. The paper attempts to trace the effects of the separation of scientific knowledge into various working
groups and compares the agenda setting in the HMRC with that of the IOC Medical Commission. Drawing on
the theory of “epistemic communities” that explores the role of knowledge-based experts to support international
14decision-makers (Haas, 1992), the paper seeks to demonstrate that the organisational change in the global anti-
doping leadership and the involvement of an increased number of stakeholders moved the anti-doping discussions
away from mere science to broader topics of health and law.
References:
Peter M. Haas (1992). Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination. International
Organization, 46, 1-36.
Jörg Krieger (2016). Dope Hunters: The Influence of Scientists on the Global Fight against Doping in Sport, 1967-
1992. Champaign, IL: Common Ground.
Emmanuel Macedo
California State University, Fullerton, USA
A Conceptual Analysis of the Notion of “Health” in Anti-Doping Policy
Abstract
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) espouses two main goals. On one hand, the organization attempts to
coordinate and harmonize international anti-doping governance into an effective movement. On the other hand,
the agency vows to “Protect the Athletes’ fundamental right to participate in doping-free sport and thus promote
health, fairness and equality for Athletes worldwide.” (Italics in original) This paper focuses on a part of WADA’s
vow, namely, the protection or promotion of health.
WADA uses the concept of “health” in various sections of its World Anti-Doping Code (WADC). The first
mention is in the mission statement quoted above. While anti-doping proponents acknowledge the inherent health
risks of sport, WADA’s mission statement and ethics panel recognize doping-free sport on par with health
promotion. Another mention appears within the concept of the “spirit of sport.” According to WADA, the spirit
of sport is captured within a list of values. One of these values is health. The last mention appears as one of the
three criteria WADA uses for the banishment of a substance or method, namely, if a substance or method
represents a health risk then it meets one of the criterions for prohibition.
However, nowhere does the Code provide a definition of the concept of health. Given the importance of the
health concept within the anti-doping governance framework and the gravity of the policies created off the
conceptual understanding of health (such that anti-doping policies can ban athletes from sport), the goal of this
paper is to investigate WADA’s operationalization of the concept of “health.” To do so, I review WADA official
documents and papers by philosophers whose work has influenced WADA’s policies in order to determine how
the concept has been utilized to justify anti-doping. Then, I analyze WADA’s notion of health considering
approaches to health in the philosophy of medicine literature. By doing this, to conclude, I identify the strengths
and weaknesses of the notion of health grounding anti-doping.
References:
Bengt Kayser, Alexandre Mauron, and Andy Miah, “Current Anti-Doping Policy: A Critical Appraisal.” BMC
Medical Ethics 8, no. 1 (March 2007).
Verner Moller, The Ethics of Doping and Anti-Doping: Redeeming the Soul of Sport? (New York: Routledge,
2009).
15David McArdle
University of Stirling, Scotland, UK
WADA, Doping and the 2019 European Games: Sport and Human Rights in Belarus
Abstract
On first reading, case 2016/A/4708 Belarus Canoe Association and Belarusian Senior Men’s Canoe and Kayak
Team Members v International Canoe Federation, award of 23 January 2017 (hereafter BCA v ICF) gives rise to
three familiar, deceptively simple, themes in anti-doping. Namely, the potential role of national criminal authorities
in doping investigations; the relationship between those authorities, international sporting federations and the
global anti-doping order; and the importance of sports organisations following their own rules. However, the
author contends that in light of Belarus’ hosting of the 2019 European Games, the decision’s real significance lies
elsewhere.
Specifically, BCA v ICF raises wider issues about anti-doping agendas in nations that struggle to meet their
obligations under the WADA regime but which, relatedly, also disregard international human rights norms and use
sports as a tool for their human rights abuses. Such is the case in Belarus, the host of the 2019 European GAmes,
where the relationship between a supposedly independent national anti-doping authority and an ignoble and
unhappy regime appears uncomfortably close. The regime’s policy of soliciting major sporting events to bolster its
international credibility while simultaneously using those events to help stifle internal dissent and free speech
illustrates that concerns about how states address doping should not be divorced from the wider human rights
context. Through consideration of global human rights instruments, pressure group briefings and documents
prepared by the Monitoring Group of the UNESCO Anti-Doping Convention, the paper thus reflects on what
might be legitimately expected of WADA and other anti-doping stakeholders in their dealings with human rights
abusers – and to ask whether these inter-related concerns about doping and human rights are exacerbated by sports
federations who are only too happy to let pariah states host global events.
Lamine Redouane Mekacher, Fadhila Toudeft and Mohamed Azzouz
The Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou, DZ and Laurentian University, Greater Sudbury, CA
Sports doping knowledge of students from sport's high schools, sport doctors and retail
pharmacists
Abstract
Introduction:
Over the last few years, sport doping has occupied a major part in sport’s actuality. Even if this field is well treated
in many countries, the situation is still very deficient in Algeria. While an increasing number of surveys aim to
measure the prevalence of use of doping products among athletes, the question of knowledge about doping,
remains relatively unexplored.
Methodology:
Our study focuses on the comparison of knowledge based on questionnaires, which were submitted to a sample
of 1180 people of the Algerian sport. It concerns students from sport’s high schools (738), sport doctors (104) and
retail pharmacists (898).
Results and discussion:
Sport actors generally do not have the necessary knowledge concerning doping, in general. Only, practicing
physicians in the field of sport, have a relatively higher level of knowledge. A minority of athletes (3%) and
16pharmacists (2,9%) knew the full definition of doping in sport, adopted by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The
rate is significantly higher among physicians (26,4%). Doping is still rarely discussed during school, university or
sports courses programme.
Conclusion:
Data reported by our study represent a serious concern about the lack of knowledge of the doping phenomenon.
It appears essential to implement a targeted prevention strategy in order to improve our athlete’s knowledge,
correct their behaviour regarding doping, and so, prevent doping progression.
Verner Møller
Aarhus University, DEN
The (in)compatibility of anti-doping and highly commercialized team sports:
Professional Football as example
Abstract
When the 2003 WADA Code was being negotiated the International Football Federation, FIFA, did not willingly
toe the line. This could hardly have come as a surprise as FIFA President Sepp Blatter, in relation to the IOC-led
“Lausanne World Conference on Doping in Sport” in 1999, voiced concern over the proposed two-years minimum
sanction for first time doping rule violations. Nevertheless, FIFA was not lauded for challenging the wisdom of
the uniform two-years ban arguing that it should be left for the individual sports organisations to decide sanctions
and length of suspensions. The organisation was accused of not taking sports doping issue seriously and put under
pressure to conform to the Code. Eventually, in May 2004 after two years resistance FIFA gave in and signed the
Code whereby the organisation defused the threat of football’s exclusion from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
During the ceremony where Blatter put pen to paper, IOC president Jacques Rogge hailed FIFA’s decision
awkwardly stating: “I have been to many weddings and you hope the bride and groom will be happy. I am sure
this marriage between FIFA and WADA will be a long one and produce good children.” The scope of this paper
is to demonstrate by real and hypothetical examples that the relationship between anti-doping and football as a
highly commercialised professional team sports is not the match made in heaven Rogge predicted, and to argue
that there may have been valid concerns about feasibility and fair play rather than tacit acceptance of doping behind
FIFA’s reluctance to sign the Code.
Werner Pitsch
Saarland University, Saarbrueken, GER
Between shame and redemption: A startup workshop for distributed networked research
within the INDR
Abstract
Since the emergence of the fight against doping and not at least due to WADA‘s long-term policy, the concept of
doping has changed from an ethical concept into a legal issue, accompanied by a shift from an intentional to an
extentional (enumerative) definition. This development was nearly totally decoupled from lay sportswomen’s and
-men’s understanding of this concept. Discussions in sports-related forums on the Internet and articles in (sub-
elite-level) sports journals and magazines show that the concept of “doping” in this contexts only partly overlaps
with the definition in §2 of the WADC. The differences are not limited to the factual findings which substantiate
a doping case but also cover the moral assessment of doping. From a legal perspective on doping offenses, dopers
17are sanctioned by a limited suspension from sport. After having served this suspension, they may return into (elite)
competitive sport without any further consequences. Apart from that, public reactions to returning former dopers
range from allegations of “ex-dopers” and mistrust in their performance through to athletes who are celebrated as
heroes who have overcome a cruel fate and succeed to return to competition.
There are numerous plausible factors influencing the position of returning former athletes on the continuum
between sheer shame and complete redemption, starting with such overt factors like sex and gender, the age, the
discipline and the relation of the individual case to institutionalized (state-) doping. Additionally, more
sophisticated concepts like the communication of factual findings and the initial labeling of the case by sport
officials and the media may influence the public perception as well. Furthermore, the nationality of the involved
athlete(s) and officials as well as the nationality of sport spectators may play an important role in this context as
well.
The questions, which factors influence public reactions to former dopers’ returning into competitive sport into
which directions and which interactions between these factors may exist can best be studied by qualitative analyses
of published (print and video) material. With this approach, this research lies far beyond the average social
scientist’s limitations to time and resources for a single research study.
Therefore, the initiators of this network research try to set up a research framework, enabling a structured way
of collecting cases for studies, identifying promising pairs of cases for comparative analyses, and reporting the
results in a structured and easily accessible manner, enabling to compile results from (e.g. Bachelor- and/or Master)
decentralized studies to overarching collaborative research and publication(s).
We invite members of the INDR but also interested scholars to join this network research team, to contribute
to the plans for analysis, interpretation and report as well as to the research and subsequent publication(s).
Werner Pitsch
Saarland University, Saarbrueken, GER
Details of WADAs inefficiency in fighting doping through testing and sanctioning
Abstract
Scientific discussions of the (in-) efficiency of the Anti-Doping Testing Regime as well as its intended and
unintended consequences reach back to the 1980ies. Nevertheless, these first discussions lacked a solid empirical
basis describing the number and distribution of tests, the quality of the tests in terms of specificity and sensitivity,
and the prevalence of doping in elite sport including the distribution of the prevalence by discipline group (games,
record sport), sex and performance level. This has changed thanks to several empirical studies on the prevalence
of doping but also as a result of the WADA reporting system, providing detailed annual data on the number of
tests by country and by discipline. Therefore, the (in-) efficiency of the WADA-guided ADTR can be described in
much more detail today. This has been conducted so far for the ADTR as a whole, but as nations differ in terms
of the test density but also disciplines and sexes differ in terms of the doping prevalence, these estimations of the
sensitivity of the ADTR and of its reliability of negative tests does not hold for every discipline in every nation and
for both sexes.
The presentation will first sketch out to which extent the empirical basis for these estimations has changed.
Practical examples (e.g. male elite football in Germany, female elite cross-country skiing in Denmark) will then be
used to present the range to which the ADTR leads to different consequences for different sports, nations and
sexes. A difficulty of these estimations is that, given the often small population sizes and accordingly, small
numbers of tests, the level of error variance in the data leads to increasing statistical error in the estimations with
an increasing the level of detail. Therefore, finally the maximum level of detail will be discussed in terms of the
level at which the error variance does not lead to inappropriately low reliability of the results.
18Anna Qvarfordt
University of Gävle, SWE
Achievements, dilemmas and challenges for a legitimate anti-doping system
Abstract
When WADA’s anti-doping efforts are reviewed, scholars are often emphasizing that the way in which the work
is designed could risk its legitimacy. However, when claiming that, it is seldom that the concept of legitimacy is
elaborated or that the legitimacy of the efforts is analysed with theoretical underpinning. My purpose is to show
how a framework based on theories of legitimacy can aid the process of analysing the legitimacy for anti-doping
from the perspective of elite athletes.
I have analysed quantitative and qualitative empirical material of international elite athletes’ perceptions and
experiences of the anti-doping system, using a framework mainly emanating from Beetham’s theory on legitimacy.
The material emanates from a survey study comprising 251 athletes and an interview study with 13 athletes globally.
The framework allows for interpretation and analysis of power relations, the empirical consequences of the anti-
doping system and the extent to which athletes can be expected to comply with regulations.
The analysis includes an examination of athletes’ perceptions of accordance between the exercise of power and
the existing rules. The framework gives grounding for an analysis of perceptions of the justifiability of the rules
and anti-doping authority, and comprise as well scrutiny of whether acceptance of the authority is shown in actions.
My conclusion is that the framework based on Beetham’s theory on legitimacy is valuable for the empirical
investigation of legitimacy within the anti-doping system. It gives a broad perspective of the concept and can aid
the process of identifying areas of risk for a decrease in legitimacy. The analysis emanating from the framework
also emphasizes the importance of considering the athletes’ perspectives for a long-term sustainable enterprise.
Ian Ritchie
Brock University, CA
Happy Anniversary to the Spirit of Sport? Sport Ethics, Recursive Practices, and the
Dangers of Historical Points of Origin
Abstract
In recognition of INDR’s conference theme, this paper discusses one of the ‘anniversaries’ that comes part-and-
parcel with WADA’s 20th anniversary: the all-important “Spirit of Sport” (SoS) clause that is the cornerstone of
the World Anti-Doping Code (Code). In some ways, 2019 is the anniversary of the SoS, at least in the sense that
the nomenclature itself has become much more well known since the first version of the Code issued in 2003.
Scholars have debated the ethical premises of the SoS, certainly, but this presentation makes the point that
understanding the ethics of the SoS as an ideal upon which to ground anti-doping cannot be made without
acknowledging the social conditions under which the SoS was created – or more correctly, re-created – in the first
place. I build on sociologist Anthony Giddens’ (1984) notion of human activities as “recursive.” As part of his
theory to bring together positions in sociology that emphasize social structure, on the one hand, and human agency,
on the other, recursive practices are ones that occur between ‘free’ human volition and the impact of social
environment. While humans do act with latitude, their points of view and actions, Giddens’ maintains, usually fall
in line with established practices. Giddens’ notion of recursive social practices is a jumping-off point to consider
the creation and re-creation of the SoS. While most attention has been paid to the rendition of the SoS in the Code,
its real foundations can be traced to the Spirit of Sport Campaign initiated by Canada’s anti-doping organization,
the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), in the early 1990s. The campaign was an attempt to create an
ethical foundation for the emerging anti-doping movement in Canada following the recommendations of Justice
19of the Peace Charles Dubin (1990) in the Commission of Inquiry into the Use of Drugs and Banned Practices
following the 1988 Ben Johnson scandal. I have traced this history elsewhere (Ritchie, 2015). However, this
presentation draws upon much more in-depth sources, including primary documents from the archives of the
CCES, interviews with sport managers in the anti-doping establishment in Canada during the 1990s, and secondary
sources, to make the point that the Spirit of Sport Campaign – and its successor clause enshrined in the Code –
reflected the recursive practices and assumptions of important agents in the Canadian sport system. Those agents,
including Charles Dubin himself in his Commission of Inquiry, relied on existing assumptions or stocks of
knowledge built in to the anti-doping movement that had emerged over several years. Their activities were
recursive. After summarizing details of these recursive practices and assumptions, I comment on Paul Dimeo’s
and Verner Møller’s (2018) recent book The Anti-Doping Crisis in Sport. While their suggestions for radical reform
are admirable, and in some ways their book may point to a turning point in the scholarship on anti-doping, I want
to suggest that we must fully recognize how deeply entrenched the recursive social practices in the anti-doping
movement are before genuine reform has the possibility of taking place.
Bertrand Stoffel
McGill University, Montreal, CA
From Fair-Play to Clean Sport: How the Nature of Doping Has Evolved
Abstract
This working paper explores a central question: How have justifications for anti-doping policy evolved?
Justifications for anti-doping policy rest primarily on the idea that doping is fundamentally opposed to the core
values of sport. Traditionally, scholars and policy-makers have argued that doping is prohibited in order to re-
create a level playing field for sports, where the most skillful athletes and teams emerge as the winners (see, e.g.
Healey 2016; McKeever 2017; World Anti-Doping Code 2015).
More recently, arguments focused on athletes’ health, and public health more generally, have been deployed by
key actors and stakeholders in anti-doping policy. This trend is evident, for example, in the jurisprudence of the
European Court of Human Rights. In Fédération Nationale des Associations et des Syndicats Sportifs (FNASS)
et autre c. France, the Court held that anti-doping regulation is primarily concerned with the protection of health,
not only for professional athletes, but also for recreational athletes and youth in particular.
Public health arguments are also increasingly used in major policy frameworks. In its preamble, the UNESCO
International Convention against Doping in Sport from 19 October 2005 refers to the important role that sport
should play in the protection of health, the consequences of doping for athletes’ health, as well as the influence
that elite athletes have on youth. The proposed second revised version of the World Anti-Doping Code 2021 now
lists health as the first value in sport justifying anti-doping programs, even before ethics, fair play and honesty.
The objective of this research is to understand the reasons for the shift from fair-play justifications to clean
sport justifications for anti-doping policy. It explores the complex factors that influence or perpetuate anti-doping
policy justifications within the international and national sport communities. Using qualitative research methods,
i.e. matching emerging patterns from the analysis of various sources and perspectives including interviews with
policy makers and key actors in the anti-doping community (n=20), arbitral awards and court decisions, as well as
narrative accounts, it also seeks to understand the justifications for anti-doping policy among key actors in the anti-
doping community, as well as the shift in justification that has taken place over the past two decades. Preliminary
results indicate that the shift in justifications is about to create a new paradigm for doping as a public health issue.
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