Doping in Sports: A Contemporary Issue

This assignment delves into the pressing problem of doping in sports. It outlines the negative impacts of doping on fair competition and athlete performance. The assignment analyzes various interventions implemented by organizations like WADA and IOC to combat doping. It also explores social theories surrounding the anti-doping movement and highlights the need for increased social awareness to effectively address this issue.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN SPORTS
Contemporary Issues in Sports
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Thesis Statement- In this essay, the effect of the contemporary issue of doping on performance of
sportsmen is critically analyzed.
Introduction
Doping, the term is derived from dope, which is an expression that was used to refer to an
alcoholic drink which was used to stimulate dancers of South Africa; this term was later
extended to modern day doping. Athletes use banned substance to improve their performance in
sports. This is called doping. The International Olympic Committee and the International Sports
Authorities and Federation have listed, identified and accepted some doping substances. The
doping substances are stimulants, analogues, peptide, narcotic analgesics, diuretics and
glycoprotein hormones and anabolic agents. This list is continuously updated by the major sports
organizations like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Sports
Authorities. Doping methods can be of various types like physical manipulation, blood doping,
chemical manipulation and pharmacological manipulation (Angelo et al., 2013). There are drugs
like alcohol, beta-blockers, anesthetics, marijuana; corticosteroids are subjected to restrictions by
organizations like International Olympic Committee (IOC). Some medical requirement can make
it necessary to consume such drugs but without a proper medical ground. An athlete who
consumes any of these substances or adopts this kind of doping methods is subjected to
disqualification by governing organizations of sports (Alexander, 2014).
Discussion
According to O'Leary (2013), Doping has detrimental effects on athletes and it poses
threat to fair competition in sports. In endurance sports like cycling, rowing, swimming, cross-
country and skiing, athletes make use of drugs to enhance their performance. One such drug is

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erythropoietin which is consumed by athletes who play endurance sports. Erythropoietin leads to
a higher level of red blood cells which can make the blood of athletes more oxygenated and thus
increase their performance in endurance sports. Thus doping should be avoided as it leads to
unfair competition. It has been criticized that sports like football and soccer are not doing much
to resolve the issue of doping. However, according to Yar (2014), it can be alternatively be
argued that doping should be legalized in athletes. The zero-tolerance against doping is not
working. If the blood data is non-suspicious, it does not prove that no doping substances are
used. It only means that doping substances in blood of athletes did not exceed the range. It is
known that athletes are subjected to doping but the organizations of sports are unable to clearly
identify the athletes who have made use of doping substances. Thus, high-performance of
athletes are subjected to suspicion and many athletes face harassments even if they do not make
use of doping substances just because they have delivered high performance. For instance,
cyclist Chris Froome and his teammates delivered high performance in Tour de France and was
subjected to physical violence. Justin Gatlin has complained that bans related to doping have led
to unfair and biased coverage of his performance (O'Leary, 2013).
Key findings and Application of Social theory and Interventions
The Athlete Biological passport is the fundamental principle which can be utilized for
monitoring the specified biological variables over time that can reflect indirectly the effects of
doping rather than to make an attempt to detect the doping substance or the doping method itself.
The robust framework of the anti-doping program can be integrated into the Athlete Biological
passport by the anti-doping organizations for identification and target of athletes who can be
subjected to specific analytical testing by making use of intelligent methods for interpreting their
passport data on time. WADA is the international independent organization which is responsible

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to monitor and coordinate the global fight against sports. The Athlete Biological Passport has
been developed by WADA.
The executive committee of WADA approved the Biological Passport Operating
guidelines of WADA on December 1, 2009. A standardized approach was adopted by the first
version of WADA ABP guidelines to profile the Haematological variables of the athletes to
detect the doping level in blood of sportsmen. The second module was introduced by the fourth
version of WADA ABP guidelines which is called the steroidal module which was used to detect
steroid doping from urinary steroid concentrations of athletes over time. WADA will develop
and revise the Athlete Biological Pass port guideline and thus intervene to control doing among
sportsmen by consulting its stakeholders to intervene in anti-doping activities and to take strict
measures and control to rectify the doping related issue in sports((WADA intervention, 2017)
The anti-doping rule violations consist of 10 rules which are in alignment with the
World-Anti Doping code like the sportsmen should not fail to submit a sample collection for
testing related to doping, the athlete’s sample should not contain a prohibited substance, an
athlete should not tamper with the doping control, an athlete should not be associated with a
doctor or coach who has been found guilty of violating the anti-doping rules (WADA
intervention, 2017)
United Kingdom Anti Doping is the national anti-doping organization which is
responsible for charging the personnel who have supported athletes or athletes directly for Anti-
Doping Rule Violations (ADRV). The code of ADRV was developed by UKAD IN 2015 and the
code is aligned to World-Anti Doping code, thus UKAD intervenes and control doping among

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sportsmen. Results from testing programs of doping related activities in sportsmen are also
published by UKAD.
There are more than 89 sports which are charged with having doping payers. In all
international game formats, 115 nations were represented by doped players.
There has been evidence of doping in football. FIFA is of the opinion that education can
make sports free of doping. The intervention that is adopted by FIFA to ensure that football
matches are free from doping is that FIFA ensures that team physicians sign a declaration that
states that athletes will undergo routine blood testing before the commencement of FIFA world
cup (Duntas & Popovic, 2013). In the Olympic Games, athletes are tested for Erythropoietin by
testing samples of their urine and blood. 18-pro cyclists have died due to the use of
Erythropoietin as of 2012 (Barkoukis et al., 2013).Some of the Anti-Doping organizations that
intervene in activities related to doping are the United States Olympic Committee. The
International Olympic Committee has founded the World Anti-Doping Agency. The activities of
the agency include education and development to intervene and address issues related to doping
and to monitor the World Anti-Doping Code. The UNESCO International Convention against
Doping in Sports enforced the provision of the World-Anti Doping Agency. Also, the Council of
Europe Anti-Doping Convention has intervened with doping activities related to sports to and the
aims of this organization are in alignment with that of WADA (Morente-Sánchez & Zabala,
2013).
Functionalist theory is applied to this issue related to doping in sportsmen. Emile
Durkheim portrayed the perspective that interconnected part of a society or social being can be
harmonized by philosophers and sociologists belonging to the same school of thought. The issue

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related to doping in sportsmen is considered a contemporary issue of sports because it raises
questions against the social justification of sportsmen. Ben Johnson was found guilty of doping
in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Diego Maradona was also found guilty of doping in 1986 World
Cup. Lance Armstrong, the renowned cyclist was accused of doping in Tour de France in 2005.
The doping acquisitions against Armstrong got stronger because his teammates were found to
consume Erythropoietin. Maria Sharapova, the five-time Grand Slam Winner was found guilty of
doping and claimed that she concealed the use of meldonium from authorities and International
Tennis Federation banned her from playing tennis till 26 January, 2018 (Paoli & Donati, 2014).
A sports organization or a governing body of sports organize campaign, activities and
programs and implement codes to address groups issues related to doping in sports. These code
or conduct or campaigns are called intervention. The contemporary issues of sports are broad and
diverse, so one intervention can’t solve an issue. Intervention from sports organization is
mandatory to address contemporary issue of sports like doping. Despite of the intervention to
handle issues related to doping in sportsmen, the success rate of Anti-doping campaigns is just 1-
2 percentages. The social theory is used in the research as the anti doping movement will lead to
the harmony of the individual social being to create an effective understanding of the issues. The
sports and anti-doping communities can be committed to clean sport; they can incorporate the
‘Say No!’ To Doping logo in promotional materials, uniforms, sports equipment and competition
venues. More than stringent law, social awareness needs to be developed so that more number of
the sports persons can be driven to a squad free from doping.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that doping in sportsmen is a contemporary issue in sports that have
negative consequences like doping leads to unfair competition in sports. The performance of

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sportsmen increases dramatically because of doping which does not ensure fair competition.
There has been intervention from different sports organizations like WADA, IOC, FIFA and
many more for implementing positive steps to control doping among sportsmen. However, the
tests conducted to test doping in sportsmen are not always effective and many sportsmen have
complained that bans which are related to doping caused unfair and biased coverage of their
performance.

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Reference List
Alexander, B. R. (2014). War on drugs redux: Welcome to the war on doping in
sports. Substance use & misuse, 49(9), 1190-1193.
Angelo Corlett, J., Brown Jr, V., & Kirkland, K. (2013). Coping with doping. Journal of the
Philosophy of Sport, 40(1), 41-64.
Barkoukis, V., Lazuras, L., Tsorbatzoudis, H., & Rodafinos, A. (2013). Motivational and social
cognitive predictors of doping intentions in elite sports: An integrated
approach. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 23(5).
Duntas, L. H., & Popovic, V. (2013). Hormones as doping in sports. Endocrine, 43(2), 303-313.
Morente-Sánchez, J., & Zabala, M. (2013). Doping in sport: a review of elite athletes’ attitudes,
beliefs, and knowledge. Sports Medicine, 43(6), 395-411.
O'Leary, J. (2013). Drugs & Doping in Sports. Routledge.
Paoli, L., & Donati, A. (2014). The sports doping market. In Understanding Supply and Demand
and the Challenges of Their Control. Springer New York.
WADA intervention. (2017). wada-ama.org. Retrieved 24 October 2017, from
https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2017-04/wada-publishes-2015-anti-doping-
rule-violations-report
Yar, M. (2014). Crime, deviance and doping: Fallen sports stars, autobiography and the
management of stigma. Springer.