Anti-doping Policy Research Articles

Epistemic racism in anti-doping research: A call for critical awareness

The anti-doping movement is presented with significant challenges, including high-profile inter-agency disputes, claims of inconsistent application of the WADA Code, institutionalized doping, and the emergence of doping-permissive movements. Amid these issues lies a less recognized yet crucial issue of epistemic racism, which can undermine global anti-doping initiatives. Epistemic racism, rooted in culturally biased systems of knowledge production, often privileges Western perspectives while relegating non-Western perspectives. Such bias can perpetuate racial stereotypes and affect anti-doping research and policy implementation. This Commentary explores the concept of epistemic racism, its manifestations, and strategies for mitigation within anti-doping research. A case example of a recent publication is presented to demonstrate how epistemic racism can go undetected and unchallenged, potentially reproducing and reinforcing outdated stereotypes. Overlooked, epistemic racism can have profound ramifications, including deterring aspiring scholars from developing countries, distorting anti-doping policies, and reinforcing racial stereotypes. To counteract this, it is essential to educate researchers on racial biases, adapt methodologies to reduce these biases and increase the inclusion and representation of scholars from developing countries in research and editorial roles. Such measures may foster a more inclusive research environment and directly inform practice, helping anti-doping research and practice become more critically aware.

The Enhanced Games: Prohibition, harm reduction & the future of sport

The Enhanced Games (TEG) has generated significant discussion around doping in sport, with reference to notions of athlete harm, ‘fairness’, and the normalisation of IPED use. This commentary draws on Richardson (2024) in unpacking each of these elements in turn, to offer an overview of the potential positives TEG can offer our understanding of anti-doping in sport.TEG frames itself around athlete health rather than prohibitionist policies. This commentary unpacks the limits to anti-doping as a form of prohibition, and explores how harm reduction policies may be beneficial to prioritise in the sporting realm if we are concerned with athlete health, reflecting developments in our understanding of drug policy in the non-sporting world.The commentary then unpacks ideas of ‘fairness’ in sport, and critiques the notion of the ‘level playing field’. This is followed by discussion of therapeutic and medical use of IPEDs, and some of the inconsistencies and limitations relating to TUEs at present. A discussion of technological enhancement, centred around the polyurethane swimsuit controversy, equipped powerlifting and para athletes then points to further opportunities for TEG to explore.Following this, the extent to which TEG might normalise IPED use in comparison to other factors such as social media and aesthetics culture is considered, with counter-evidence relating to the harms that stigmatising IPED use presents also developed.To conclude, this commentary suggests that TEG offers a real opportunity for us to examine how doping and anti-doping policy operate and are conceptualised, and offers a positive appraisal of the potential for this controversial proposed Games.

Exploring the scope and applications of anti-doping measures in ultramarathon: an analysis of the positions of ultramarathon race organizers.

With ultramarathon attracting burgeoning interest, evidence has emerged about doping behaviors. However, currently, research into the anti-doping policy landscape and the adoption of testing and athlete surveillance is limited, including the applicability of rubric from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs). Consequently, it remains unclear if anti-doping provisions have been developed and enforced in ultramarathon, which is a timely consideration given growth in the sport. This study gathered perspectives on anti-doping and testing procedures from ultramarathon race organizers (UMROs). To that end, a sample of n = 35 prominent competitions was compiled using web materials and community engagement, encompassing elite and amateur entrants, diverse course designs, and prize money opportunities. Data-gathering was conducted across two phases between November and December 2023, with an initial review of UMRO web resources. Subsequently, UMROs were contacted via email to validate or ascertain their anti-doping and testing policies. Insights from UMRO respondents were reviewed and coded. UMROs who did not reply were excluded from the analysis. Based on this methodology, the positions of n = 17 UMROs were captured, covering 159 ultramarathon races and approximately 96,500 annual participants. Of these, n = 8 UMROs did not have a self-developed policy and their rubric was pursuant to external authorities like WADA and NADOs. n = 4 had created a specific proprietary policy, which often incorporated WADO or NADO materials. The remaining n = 5 UMROs reported no anti-doping controls were in place at the time of the study. There was also notable heterogeneity in testing and surveillance, ranging from rigorous procedures to an absence of protocols. Interestingly, none of the included UMROs explicitly reported that they had enacted anti-doping measures against athletes. Various determinants could inform these regulatory inconsistencies across UMROs, such as financial constraints, infrastructural and logistical barriers, cultural factors, and the lack of a unifying international federation in ultramarathon. Given the disparate approaches identified in our results, greater cooperation and education may be necessary to enhance understanding about the implications of doping and advance cohesive frameworks. This should involve collaborations with WADA and NADOs to promote best-practices and evidence-based exchanges within the community.

Anti-doping and National Politics: An Ethnography in Brazilian Anti-doping Around the Era of the Rio de Janeiro Games

Abstract This study is based on an investigation into the Brazilian anti-doping policy, with a specific focus on the establishment and operational mechanisms of the Brazilian Doping Control Authority (ABCD), under the auspices of the Ministry of Sport (ME). The objective was to describe how Brazilian national policy (general political decisions, interests of parties or particular politicians/agents) affects the fight against doping and, vice versa, how the harmonization process controlled by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) affects national sports policy. A multi-sited ethnographic study was undertaken, involving field diary practices, interviews and document analysis. Adopting the perspective of pragmatic sociology, this study delves into the descriptions of three key periods in the recent history of anti-doping in Brazil: the creation of ABCD and the dissolution of ANAD (National Anti-Doping Agency), the realization of the first 100 anti-doping tests by the ABCD (critical period for its members who managed to keep away ex-officers from ANAD) and the impeachment of the Brazilian president in 2016 (ex-officers from ANAD took over the direction of the ABCD). Our analysis allowed us to conclude that ‘diverting others from decision-making spheres’ comprised a political strategy to occupy spaces of power or to stabilize itself in them, which, in this case, allowed the control of anti-doping actions in the country. Local protagonists tried to make use of international injunctions and pressure or local political events to achieve these goals.

The challenges of harmonising anti-doping policy implementation

ABSTRACT The policy-implementation gap conceptualises how policy intentions and outcomes often differ due to a failure to consider the realities of implementation. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) directs Olympic anti-doping policy, seeking to harmonise anti-doping policy globally; however, the realisation of consistent implementation has proven challenging. A major cause of inconsistent policy implementation is inter-signatory variation, but the mechanisms of variation are poorly understood. WADA provides an excellent example to explore why policy gaps occur in international sport governance. Consequently, we aimed to analyse the different types of inter-signatory variation in anti-doping policy and identify practical solutions to address inter-signatory variation in anti-doping. Data were collected from the Regional Anti-Doping Programme (RADO), a group of organisations tasked with increasing the capacity of NADOs globally. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 RADO staff and board members who were sampled as key informants to discuss how inter-signatory variation affects anti-doping policy compliance. Following reflexive thematic analysis, we identified four thematic categories explaining inter-signatory variation in anti-doping implementation: (1) socio-geographic, (2) political, (3) organisational, and (4) human resources. Based on our analysis, we theorise why the policy-implementation gap occurs and provide recommendations to improve anti-doping policy implementation.

Anti-Doping Policy, Health, and Harm

ABSTRACT The anti-doping policies of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) aim to promote a level playing field and protect the health of the athlete. Anti-doping policy discourages research using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) or methods and prohibits athlete support personnel, including healthcare providers, from providing advice, assistance, or aid to an athlete or others seeking to use, or using PEDs until harm has occurred. Athletes are individually responsible for the presence of a prohibited substance in their bodies and face sanction regardless of knowledge or intent. I will argue (i) that WADA policies fail to meet the epistemic and control conditions needed to adequately assign individual responsibility and (ii) that transferring responsibility for use of PEDs solely to the athlete results in harm. WADA is drifting perilously close to the morally impermissible ‘doing of harm’ to athletes by initiating or sustaining a causal sequence of events that can result in harm.

Stakeholders’ perspectives on the effectiveness of the Chinese anti-doping education policy

ABSTRACT The significance of anti-doping education in competitive sports is paramount, necessitating athletes and coaches to possess an in-depth understanding of doping prevention strategies. However, information on the Chinese context is limited, prompting a comprehensive examination of the nation’s anti-doping education system. This study explored the experiences of 45 stakeholders involved in Chinese anti-doping education via in-depth interviews and provides a critical analysis of the system’s target audience, delivery methods, timing, and content. The study developed an anti-doping education policy implementation model, assessing its efficacy within the Chinese context. The model posits that while China has made significant strides in addressing key factors of anti-doping education, improvements are still required. Notably, broadening the selection of target groups, enhancing awareness-raising efforts, and establishing comprehensive plans for anti-doping education throughout an athlete’s lifecycle are crucial. Additionally, clear timelines for these initiatives and an optimised anti-doping policy evaluation process, involving increased collaboration with academic institutions and scholar participation in research, are recommended. These findings underline the importance of a continuous and context-specific refinement of China’s anti-doping education strategies, aligning with the evolving needs of stakeholders and the broader demands of the sporting ecosystem.

Is WADA creating and then prosecuting thought crimes?

ABSTRACT Antidoping policy regulates and punishes the use of substances that are listed on a Prohibited List (PL). These substances are colloquially known as ‘performance-enhancing substances’. There is very little empirical evidence of enhancement for most of the substances on the PL raising the possibility that the perceived enhancement of performance experienced by an athlete is a placebo effect. A placebo effect is a response to an inert substance that is strongly influenced by psychological and social cues in the surrounding environment. It is our contention that, given the lack of proper empirical testing of the substances on the PL, it is in fact the appearance of a substance on the PL that has the strongest performance-enhancing effect in elite athletes. This disconnect between science and WADA’s code raises the question of what we really object to: real performance enhancement achieved using substances on the PL or performance enhancement that occurs because WADA has told us that the substance will enhance performance by placing it on the PL? In this case, antidoping policy would punish those who believe the performance-enhancing myth at the heart of the PL thus leading to a deeply flawed policy that creates its own victims.

스포츠 뇌 도핑(brain doping)과 인권

The use of tDCS (Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation), a non-invasive and painless brain stimulation technique, could be used in sports as a new form of brain doping. The World Anti-Doping Agency prohibits doping in competition, and brain doping has the potential to be used as a substitute or workaround for traditional doping methods. As brain doping technologies may provide performance enhancement in a similar way to doping athletes with banned substances or other devices, it is necessary to examine the normative implications of brain doping as an advanced technology. This article examines constitutional principles from the perspective of fundamental rights, such as the rule of law and fairness, and how they relate to human rights issues. In order to focus the discussion on the constitutional issue of anti-corruption, the article examines the public law issues of rule of law and fairness, and the human rights issues of equality, mental freedom, and the right to health, in the context of brain doping in athletes, and suggests implications for anti-doping policy. The implications of imposing restrictions on performance enhancement by intervening in the brain may be a matter of limiting an individual's right to self-determination as a form of self-determination in that it may restrict an individual's ability to improve their performance in a variety of ways of their own free will. In order for brain-doping devices to contribute to sporting fairness, it is important to ensure that access to brain-doping devices is equitable among individuals, while minimizing the adverse effects of using the technology and ensuring that athletes are safe from health risks. Guidelines are needed to ensure that devices that have the potential to undermine the fairness of sporting events through brain doping are included on the anti-doping rule's prohibited list and that athletes who use them are suspended from competition, and that underage athletes are not coerced into using brain-doping devices by coaches, managers et al. When tDCS used for brain doping is marketed as a wellness healthcare product, there is a need for consumer protection. Considering that doping may emerge in new ways in line with advances in science and technology, international cooperation and discussions should be carried out with the participation of civil society to ensure that technological advances do not jeopardize the safety of citizens and become a tool for corruption.

Doping knowledge, attitude, and experience of pharmacists in Kenya

BackgroundWorld Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) expects any individual caring for athletes to adhere to anti-doping policies, standards, and regulations. Therefore, pharmacists caring for athletes should demonstrate reliable knowledge of doping and anti-doping that aligns with the required WADA standards for individuals working with athletes, commonly referred to as athlete support personnel. In line with this expectation, the present study aimed to investigate Pharmacists doping knowledge, attitude, and experience in Kenya. MethodsThe study used a cross-sectional analytical study design and self-reported questionnaires where active and registered pharmacists by Kenya Pharmacists & Poisons Board (KPPB) from 7 out of 47 counties in Kenya were selected. Results365 of 507 pharmacists completed the study questionnaires. More than half, 54.9% (n = 200) pharmacists self-reported to have slightly above average doping knowledge. Participants had varying understandings of doping. For instance, they self-reported having a low familiarity with the world anti-doping code and anti-doping rule violations but a good knowledge of PEDs and side effects of prohibited substances such as anabolic agents and methods such as erythropoietin. TV/Radio and the internet were pharmacists' primary sources of doping learning. Overall, pharmacists displayed a negative doping attitude. Though work experience had no significant influence on pharmacists doping attitude, H (4) = 8.924, p = .063, pharmacists with less work experience showed a weak negative attitude. As many pharmacists as 27.4% (n = 100) were approached for doping assistance within 12 months. The commonly sought doping information was for drugs to aid recovery 60.2% (n = 59) and side effects of PEDs 38.8% (n = 38). Steroids and peptide hormones were the most requested PEDs by pharmacists. Money, weak sanctions, and ignorance about doping were primary contributors to pharmacists assisting athletes in doping. ConclusionPharmacists’ doping knowledge in Kenya is inconsistent, and Kenya healthcare practitioners' associations such as KPPB should undertake to support members in anti-doping knowledge by adopting the FIP guidelines and introducing free and renewable anti-doping certificate courses to ensure healthcare practitioners, especially those working with athletes conforms with WADA standards regarding doping knowledge. Pharmacists get most doping information from TV/Radio and the internet, which implies that there is need for ADAK to optimize the opportunity and provide customized, reliable, and updated doping information to healthcare practitioners using these platforms. Future studies should consider using frameworks such as the Social Ecological Model to allow comprehensive interrogation of multiple factors (society, community, personal etc.) affecting pharmacists doping knowledge, attitude, and experience.

Extraterritoriality of the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act and Its Impact on the Anti-Doping Regulatory System

The paper examines the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act (Rodchenkov Act) and its impact on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). WADA has a dominant status in the field of anti-doping regulation in sport and builds relationships with other actors in sport based on a hierarchy. Maintaining WADA’s status as the primary regulator and coordinator of anti-doping activities in sport appears necessary for the further effective development of anti-doping policy and maintaining parity between States in matters of anti-doping activities. However, extraterritorial application of the Rodchenkov Act challenges WADA’s position as the universal and exclusive entity responsible for coordinating the fight against doping in sport, and, therefore, this poses threats to the harmonized governance model of the anti-doping system by States. The paper examines the legal aspects of the Rodchenkov Act, its impact on the anti-doping regulatory system and the feasibility of introducing the extra-territorial principle of operation. The authors also analyze the first investigation under the Rodchenkov Act carried out in 2022 and the future prospects of its application. The authors focus on examination of permissibility of extraterritorial provisions of the Rodchenkov Act and the possible implications for the anti-doping system if the Rodchenkov Act is applied extraterritorially.

Are dietary supplement users more likely to dope than non-users?: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

In the past decade, a body of evidence has reported that dietary supplement use is related to prohibited performance enhancing substance use (i.e., doping). To help international and national sport organisations understand the degree to which dietary supplement use is related to doping, the objectives of this systematic review and meta-analysis were to 1) compare the prevalence of doping between dietary supplement users and non-users and 2) identify whether supplement use is related to doping social cognitive factors. We searched for studies sampling athletes and that measured both dietary supplement use and doping in EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINAHL and SPORTDiscus from database creation to May 2022. Risk of bias was assessed using JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for cross-sectional studies and the STROBE checklist. Twenty-six cross-sectional studies, involving 13,296 athletes were included. Random-effect models revealed that doping was 2.74 (95% CI=2.10 to 3.57) times more prevalent in dietary supplement users (pooled prevalence = 14.7%) than non-users (6.7%), and that users reported stronger doping intentions (r=0.26, 0.18 to 0.34) and attitudes (r=0.21, 0.13 to 0.28) compared to non-users. Preliminary evidence also suggests that dietary supplement users were less likely to dope if they were more task oriented and had a stronger sense of morality. Results of the review are limited by the cross-sectional design used in all studies and lack of consistency in measurement of dietary supplement use and doping. Data indicate that athletes using dietary supplements are more likely to self-report doping Anti-doping policy should, therefore, target dietary supplement use in anti-doping education programmes by providing alternative strategies for performance enhancement or highlighting the safest ways they can be consumed. Similarly, as a large proportion of athletes use dietary supplements without doping, further research is needed to understand the factors that protect a dietary supplement user from doping. No funding was received for the review. A study protocol can be found here: https://osf.io/xvcaq.

Examining mindfulness and moral disengagement in doping: Perspective of Turkish wrestlers.

Studies related to attitudes toward the use of prohibited substances in Turkish athletes are scarce. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has implemented anti-doping educational policies emphasizing doping-related education in studies conducted among Turkish wrestlers. However, it is still unclear the extent to which the wrestlers comply and adhere to these anti-doping policies. No research has previously examined the effect of anti-doping education on athletes' mindfulness and moral disengagement in doping (MDD). Therefore, the present study has a two-fold objective: first, to examine whether doping-related education (DRE) and the status of being a national athlete (NA) have an effect on athlete mindfulness and MDD. Second, to analyze the relationship between each sub-dimensions of athlete mindfulness: awareness (ASD), judgment (JSD), and refocus (RSD) with MDD. A total of 409 male wrestlers participated in this study. MANOVA analysis showed that NA and DRE alone have no effect on MDD but have a general effect on mindfulness. The highest effect was on the ASD of being an NA ( = 0.173). When the interaction effect of NA*DRE was examined, significant difference in MDD (F = 8.218, p = 0.004), ASD (F = 8.476, p = 0.004), JSD (F = 5.844, p = 0.016), and RSD (F = 11.476, p = 0.001) were found. MDD has a weak negative relationship with ASD (r = -0.126) and RSD (r = -0.041) and a weak positive relationship with the JSD sub-dimension (r = 0.140). Those results suggest that being a NA and having received anti-doping education affect moral disengagement in doping and athletes' mindfulness. As a conclusion, it is recommended to increase awareness and anti-doping education among national-standard Turkish wrestlers to prevent them from engaging in doping behaviors.

Anabolic-androgenic steroids: Considerations for forensic psychiatry, sports psychiatry, and the law

Anabolic-androgenic steroids: Considerations for forensic psychiatry, sports psychiatry, and the law

A Review of Anti-Doping Policies Prior to the Formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency

A Review of Anti-Doping Policies Prior to the Formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency

The good, the bad, and the ugly: A qualitative secondary analysis into the impact of doping and anti-doping on clean elite athletes in five European countries

ABSTRACT Protecting clean sport, and the rights of athletes to a clean sport environment, is at the centre of anti-doping policies. To better support and enable clean athletes and sport, an understanding of the clean athlete lifeworld is required. The current study explored the ways that clean athletes are personally affected by others’ actual or suspected instances of doping and anti-doping rule violations, and by aspects of the anti-doping system. Qualitative Secondary Analysis (QSA) was used to re-analyse and interpret 13 focus group transcripts generated from the ‘Research-Embedded Strategic Plan for Anti-Doping Education Clean Sport Alliance Initiative for Tackling Doping’ (RESPECT) project (see Petróczi et al., 2021b). The sample in the parent study included 82 self-declared clean elite athletes, from Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia, and the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis generated three overarching themes: The harm done by clean athletes having to coexist with dopers, how clean athletes are undermined by a disingenuous interest in clean sport, and the anxiety experienced by clean athletes over mistakes that could lead to anti-doping rule violations. The impacts of doping on clean athletes – direct or indirect – are experienced by all clean athletes in some way. The results indicate that current approaches to anti-doping rule compliance frequently undermine clean athletes and the perceived legitimacy of the anti-doping system.

Mathematical models applied to the prediction of doping in male athletes

The compartmental model is a mathematical model (usually described by a set of differential equations) that describes how individuals from different compartments (or groups) that represent a population, interacts. The model is suitable especially for epidemic model, modeling spread of disease but also in simulation of interaction among social groups. The compartmental model has few assumptions to be feasible: “the infection/contamination rate” can be a function of many parameters (seasonality, epidemic waves, dependence of social distancing, policy of awareness, policy, and so one). The main assumption is that the population is homogeneous but, in reality, the heterogeneity of population (spatial localization, seasonal, demography) plays an important role in accuracy of models. Our approach was based on another method that has been used in the last years, the inclusion of a temporal function including heterogeneity in the influence that conduct to doping similar to rate of infection from epidemic models. In this paper, a new model is proposed for quantitative analysis of doping in a particular selected sport. Almost all the models in doping use the biological markers and effect of doping in declared by athletes involved in use of banned substances in a quantitative analysis over a group of high-performance athletes. The proposed compartmental model SEDRS (Susceptible-Exposed-Doped-Recovered-Susceptible) includes the heterogeneity shaped by awareness, due to social interaction that transmit the anti-doping policy. These measures are patterned by social interaction, especially during competitions and training, and this approach is included in system of integrodifferential equations. A heterogeneous (SEDRS) model is numerically solved and the solutions show how the social factor can contribute to decay of doping phenomenon of male athletes and the quantifiable influence in a healthier atmosphere in sport. The scope of the paper is the prediction of doping cases based on SEDRS model.

Doping – problem nieświadomego społeczeństwa i polityki międzynarodowej państw

The definition of doping in the World Anti-Doping Code is an important instrument of international politics. While implications are obvious for the professional athletes participating in Olympic Games, they remain vague for the broader society – the followers of the Olympic struggles. The article is an attempt to indicate the problem faced by society, international institutions and states, trying to pursue an effective anti-doping policy. It presents a comprehensive description of one of the largest doping scandals with the participation of the Russian authorities in 2013–2014 and the results of the author’s research on society’s knowledge of doping in sports. Public awareness of banned substances and methods may turn out to be crucial while assessing the actions of governments and international institutions. Society may have insufficient knowledge about doping and may be unaware of its role in politics on an international scale. An ani-doping policy is a part of state policy, so it impacts the way of benefiting physical culture which is one of the areas creating the public sector.

Challenges associated with implementing anti-doping policy and programs in Africa.

Concerns regarding the capability of the International Olympic Committee to address doping in sport catalyzed the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999. In its establishment phase, WADA sought geopolitical legitimacy and support from governments (including non-Western states) for financing and acceptance. Africa was not considered during WADA's creation, relegating African states to a passive role in the global anti-doping program, and yet is still subject to the strict compliance requirements for WADA's global policy. African countries face challenges establishing anti-doping support structures and implementing the universal policy, including competing macro-level policy demands that favor addressing legacies of colonialism and human capacity development. To develop robust anti-doping support structures, African nations must spearhead anti-doping initiatives by leveraging existing infrastructure and encouraging collaborations between NADOs such that capacity can be built for policy implementation.

Higenamine, Anti-Doping, and Plant-Based Cuisine: A Legal Analysis of Higenamine in Sport Anti-Doping Systems

Current anti-doping policy seeks to protect honest athletes from biochemically overeducated colleagues. However, there is a question of whether the present policy has gone too far. This article illustrates the ambiguity of the anti-doping policy in the context of a particular plant-based substance (i.e., higenamine) by providing certain case studies. In such cases, the process of proof requires the continuous checking of suppositions since an athlete must establish how the prohibited substance could have entered his or her body. This obligation implies that an athlete and the defending team must have legal, medical, dietary, and biochemical knowledge. However, even with all precautions, it is still possible to fail an anti-doping test and be severely punished because it is almost impossible to trace all the sources that caused the prohibited substance to enter the athlete’s body.