DETECTION AND EDUCATION IN ANTI-DOPING POLICY : A REVIEW OF CURRENT ISSUES AND AN ASSESSMENT OF FUTURE PROSPECTS

Abstract

In the last ten years there have been dramatic changes in efforts to tackle the problem of doping in sport. In 1999 the World Anti-Doping Agency was established and five years later in 2004 the World Anti-Doping Code was approved with the aim of harmonizing anti-doping policy and practice across the globe. Since then the Code has been revised and UNESCO has drafted an Anti-Doping Convention which will legally commit governments to support WADA and implement the Code. These considerable achievements reflect not only the seriousness of the problem of doping in elite sport, but also the increasing importance of elite sport, especially Olympic sport, and elite sporting success to governments and to business. Elite sport has been important as a diplomatic resource in relation to specific issues such as apartheid in South Africa and the also the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, but it has also become increasingly important for a wide range of governments in raising the profile of a country (through hosting major sports events or having successful athletes) and in developing and maintaining national pride. Businesses have also come to appreciate the value of elite sport ̶ as a commodity to be sold and as a vehicle for the marketing of non-sport goods and services. While there are some who argue either that doping is impossible to eliminate or that doping is no different from other forms of scientific advantage and that anti-doping efforts should be abandoned the balance of opinion among governments and international sports organizations is that doping is contrary to the ethos of sport, undermines its diplomatic value and reduces its profit potential for business. Consequently, anti-doping organizations and policy operates within a complex and highly political environment where expectations for success are high. The aim of this paper is to provide an assessment of the state of current anti-doping policy and to identify and review a number of the most significant issues that currently face policy-makers. The paper begins with a brief overview of the context from which WADA emerged in the late 1990s and an analysis of how perceptions of the problem of doping have altered. This is followed by an assessment of the current global policy regime or infrastructure for anti-doping policy. The paper then moves on to consider the following issues: