Sport, Drugs, and Doping

Two key issues continue to haunt sport: first, that athletes have cheated, and will continue to cheat, using strong performance-enhancing drugs that involve health risks; second, that draconian antidoping measures have led to excessive surveillance, disproportionate punishments, and severe consequences (financial, mental health, long-term career) for some athletes. Academic approaches are broadly divided into those practically supportive of antidoping through prevention research, those which accept the current nature of antidoping policy and aim to provide improved knowledge and understanding, and those with a more critical perspective, including trying to find manageable and acceptable new solutions, such as harm reduction. The chapter reviews these approaches and summarizes key issues and debates before exploring the contribution to be made by social science research.