Literature Review
1. The article entitled “Doping in Sport: A Review of Elite Athletes’ Attitudes, Beliefs and Knowledge” examines the way doping in sport should be studied. As it has usually been studied only at a biomedical standpoint, in understanding why athletes’ choose to dope, studies must be done on a psychological level to truly understand what they know and why they believe the things they do. According to Jaime Morente-Sanchez and Mikel Zabala, anti-doping controls seem to be less exhaustive in team sports and can vary between sports the level of severity. Also, it is suggested that it does not appear that teammates or specialists advise athletes to try illegal drugs, but rather it is the coaches themselves who pressure the athletes into enhancing drugs.
It is relevant to point out WADA believes doping research and investigation should include sociological, behavioral, and ethical studies of athletes attitudes of banned drugs within sports. This is interesting to mention because as the article mentions athletes rarely decide to talk about this subject regardless of confidentiality. Mainly athletes decline to discuss this matter because it could jeopardize their entire professional careers. This article discusses the techniques used to find how athletes perceive doping within professional sports and their attitudes towards it.
2. The main objective of the article “Managing Sport: Social and Cultural Perspectives” is to discuss how doping in sports has progressed throughout the years. The article states how since the 1980s drug testing has been implemented but the efforts to drug test all possible athletes is now more prominenet instead of only singling out athletes who win. Drug testing is now offered to all athletes, even when athletes are “out of competition.” An interesting point the article makes is that drug testing is not only secluded to elite athletes but now to all athletes due to multiple drug test failures across all levels of sports.
The article then goes into detail about illicit drug use within the country of Australia. Entitled “Case Study: Determining the Regulation of Illicit-Drug Use in Australian Sport, this case study examines how Australia’s use of drug regulation has been an increasingly pressing issue ever since Eastern European nations began doing so in the twentieth century. As the article mentions, Australians have always been successful in terms of sports and are very competitive individuals. It has been questioned how well drug regulation is in Australia due to multiple cases of failed drug tests including the Rugby League and Australian Football. It is also a concern to many how invested the Australian people are, particularly the media, in ensuring that Australia has a competitive advantage over other countries due to the countries solid investment in sports. According to this case study, the power of the Australian government, ASADA, and Australian Sports Commission have so much power that their views can shape how the entire country views anti-doping within sports.
3. The article “Current anti-doping policy: a Critical Appraisal” discusses the current anti-doping policies as well as WADA’s rules. Policies were created to ensure fairness and equality among athletes and so no one is favoring from a particular performance enhancing drug that would be considered cheating. This article also compares current doping policies being similar to “war-like ideology” and ethically wrong. Medically, doctors main concern is for unauthorized and illegal drugs to be circling around. However, it has become evident that doping concerns really do not affect a large portion of the population and instead can force athletes to go to drastic measures, such as sharing needles, to receive these drugs.
More specifically, this article discusses WADA’s rules over athletes to ensure no doping. One particular rule is that athletes are “obliged to keep the authorities informed of their day-o-day whereabouts so they can be obliged to urinate in full view of another person for sample collection, without prior notice.” Internationally, athletes are now required to fill out forms and submit them of their constant whereabouts and day-to-day activities to closely monitor their every move and ensure that doping is not an issue. This type of watching deems to be unethical and unfair to current athletes who cannot live a regular life because WADA and other associations are almost already accusing them of taking these drugs.
The main topic of this article highlights the authors viewpoints on how medically supervised doping within ethical standards can actually have positive outcomes. The main arguments are that it will allow access to see what health risks athletes are in store for as well as allow medics to see what types of doping drugs are really harmful or not. Health problems and problems associated with health might actually improve for athletes who now can be supervised while using performance enhancing drugs and science for the future can gain a better understanding of what drugs are harmful and should definitely be illegal instead of pushing athletes to drastic measures to cover up their drug use. All in all, this article finds that doping should not be illegal and that different rules need to be implemented for the ethical rights of the athletes.
4. The article “Reviewing Coaches’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Doping in Sport” examines coaches perspective on doping within sports. This article states how a coaches strong emphasis on winning and multiple victories is probably one of the main causes as to why athletes decide to cheat (use drugs) in the first place. The article also mentions a case from 2004 where “one study linked coach behavior to athletes justifying unethical behavior; athletes believed that bending rules may be justifiable if the coach suggested it.” Interesting enough, the article mentions how 6% of males agreed that they would cheat if their coach were to encourage it or if they were guaranteed a victory within the sport. The studies conducted revealed that internationally different types of drugs or steroids are being used frequently. The study also showed that coaches deal with issues of doping on a daily basis. Considering the topic of Hird in Australia, this article mentions that 4-% of coaches reported their own personal use of illicit drugs.
This article was interesting to read about actual coaches perspective on doping. From this study, it was clear that coaches do believe that they need to be the educators of athletes of informing them of doping side effects and problems. Coaches internationally agreed that prevention methods of doping are currently unsuccessful and changes need to be made. 74% of coaches were found to believe that doping is currently a serious problem internationally regarding sports and athletics. Changes need to be made to ensure that these doping scandals can become prevented since it is an international sport problem.
5. The article "Deterrents of Modern Anti-Doping Approaches – Are the Efforts Making a Difference?” examines how athletes weigh the decision of gains or losses from choosing to dope. According to this article, doping has seemed to decrease over recent years but some athletes and coaches still believe there are personal gains from choosing to dope. This article tries to examine why athletes dope based on whether it is a reward (personal gain, greater compensation) versus having to risk testing positive and jeopardizing their athletic careers.
According to this article, it appears that doping is on the decline is because the gains aren’t as profitable anymore for current athletes and the losses and the demise of their careers is now at a greater risk if caught. It appears that these days the risk of doping is much greater than the actual rewards athletes receive from using enhancing drugs. While doping is on the decrease, athletes may still choose to do so if they are influenced from coaches or other teammates who might suggest that doping helps to create a competitive edge and will result in more personal gain. This article concludes with the fact that there are higher risk and little rewards for doping but athletes can still be influenced by other sources and can alter how they perceive the drugs. This article also suggests that sports should be preserved as a showing of human skill and mastery of sport and should not be focused on enhancing drugs that take away from true talent of other athletes and create an unequal playing field.
6. The article “Sports Medicine, Confidentiality, and the Press” examined how athletes’ medical information was disclosed within the press – particularly English newspapers. During March of 2010 newspapers were reviewed in search of articles or bulletins regarding athletes health within the press. The study showed that English newspapers pay particular attention to the health of football players and do not always receive consent for publishing this personal information. The study examines how athletes need to be educated on their ethical rights as patients instead of pro-athletes. It is evident today that the increase use of technology and different media platforms allow individuals access to almost anyone’s personal information. It appears that athletes’ medical information is now harder than ever to control regarding the media. Doctors who provide this information are clearly going against patient-doctor confidentiality and ethical rules need to be sustained in order to prevent athletic confidentiality of medical reports to be exposed to the public. Football rated the highest number of releases of 83.78% od medical releases within English newspapers. This confidentiality breach is clear to be a result of public obsession with technology and athletics and the media, newspapers in particular, are publishing stories to please the public without the athlete’s consent or knowledge. While it would be common knowledge to fans that see on TV or in person an athlete get injured and reporters write about that, it is against ethical rights of the athlete (or in this case the patient) for medical professionals to disclose their personal and detailed information regarding their medical history or conditions. It is evident that athletes, like famous individuals, are not receiving the respect they deserve for their personal matters.
7. The article “Doping and supplementation: the attitudes of talented young athletes” examines how young athletes, from the United Kingdom, who engage in doping for sports. This study used a survey to question 12-21 year olds who are young athletes and gain their attitudes about doping and performance enhancing drugs. While it appears that there have been no experiments on how these performance-enhanced drugs affect young adults, young adults still have access to these drugs and some do use them. The study concluded that more young male athletes were more interested in using performance-enhancing drugs compared to females but the majority of students did say that they would not use them. While it was evident in this study that students did not feel they would personally take these drugs, students did say yes to the question in the questionnaire when it asked them if they thought others would be inclined to doping. So while the younger athletes may not be doping themselves, they still do believe doping is a problem among athletes today. The study also mentioned how students who may have wanted to answer ‘yes’ to doping questions did not because, like pro-athletes, they are scared of jeopardizing their careers or how anonymous the surveys actually were. This survey showed however that students who feel inspired or influenced by friends or coaches might still be willing to use performance-enhancing drugs for personal gain within their sports careers.
8. The article “Public Perceptions on Doping in Sport” examines how the general public perceives doping within professional sports. This study interviewed the general public in a public shopping area to gain their perspective on doping in sports. The participants were active individuals and consisted of mostly females. The results from the study showed that doping was becoming an increasing issue among professional sports but did not feel that sanctions given to the athletes needed to be increased. The study also showed that individuals believed that doping is considered cheating and that it gives athletes an unfair advantage over the competition. Interestingly, individuals were not deeply affected by those who were accused of doping and still continued to support their favorite teams despite possible doping allegations. The respondents could also name at least three sports for which doping incidents had occurred within professional sports. It was also interesting to read that parents found athletes who used drugs to be irresponsible role models for their children, yet if the drugs became legal, the parents would allow their children to use them for their personal gain within sports. The study concluded with the fact that individuals’ perception on doping in sports varies but the public does not seem to be educated on what might be classified as an illegal drug within sports doping incidents. From this article it seems relevant that the public needs to become more aware of performance-enhancing drugs and then the implemented laws can actually become of use for younger athletes who wish to go pro but do not know the effects of performance-enhancing drugs.
9. The article “International Handbook on the Economics of Mega Sporting Events” takes a look at doping and anti-doping measures within sporting events. It relates athletes and doping to a prisoner’s-dilemma type situation where the athlete will find it essential and beneficial to take illicit drugs. The article explains how sometimes athletes will engage in doping because they are influenced by other athletes or coaches. The article also mentions a “fair-play norms” idea that refrains athletes from doping. This idea stems from the normal idea of sporting where human talent should be used for success instead of doping for personal gain that is unequal to competitors. The article goes into details on the economics of gains and losses an athlete might consider when choosing to dope or not. Regulations need to be set to ensure a fair playing field among all athletes. Athletes’ economic incentives to use drugs need to be altered so regulation of doping needs to also be reconsidered. Regulations should focus on lowering the gains from doping as well as prevention methods to guarantee athletes do not continue to use illegal drugs while playing professional sports.
10. The article “Doping in Sports – Past, Present and Future” focuses on how doping in sports has changed throughout the years. It states how doping in sports is not a new phenomenon but has actually existed since the times of Ancient Greece. One of the biggest doping scandals involved the 1988 Summer Olympics featuring athlete Ben Johnson who failed a urine drug test. Many sports teams throughout the years have continued to witness diverse sporting scandals. While regulations are somewhat in place, athletes are still continuing to use performance-enhancing drugs. The future of doping in sports now is concerned with “gene doping.” As the article states, gene doping is defined as “non therapeutic use of cells, genes, genetic elements or modulation of gene expression, having the capacity to improve athletic performance.” It appears that doping is further advancing as the years go on and the future is looking at a new type of doping, gene doping. The article summarizes how doping within elite sports is still on the rise and is evolving. The reasons for athletes to take these drugs is still based on individual athletes, most either feel pressured or want a professional advantage over the competition to gain victory. As other articles have stated, this article also agrees that education on doping and its consequences is essential in trying to contain the doping scandals that have greatly impacted and altered the sporting world internationally. Fair play needs to be ensured in order for sports to be considered equal and for true talent to earn their own victories instead of drugs that enhance performance.
Relating to Literature Review Article #6
Relating to the Literature Review Article #8
How has the AFL handled the situation?
After hearing the allegations regarding Hird and his players on The Bombers in Essendon, Australia, the AFL has been very concerned and is determined to find the truth. Both the players and Hird will be investigated. According to Eliza Sewell, a reporter from the Northern Territory News in Australia, "The AFL Anti-Doping Code demands players and coaches must:
1. fully co-operate with any investigation.
2. fully and truthfully answer all questions.
3. provide documents whenever requested.
4. Players and coaches who fail to do this face a minimum $10,000 fine.
5. If a breach of this section is referred to the AFL tribunal by the league, there is no limit to the sanctions that can be applied to the offender.
6. The AFL Anti-Doping Code prohibits coaches from supplying and administering performance-enhancing drugs, but not taking them.
7. Separate from the ASADA probe, the AFL also has the power to apply severe sanctions against any individual it believes has brought the game into disrepute," (2013).
Other precautions AFL investigators are taking include reading emails from the past 6 years from sports scientist, Stephen Dank, and also interviewing all players. Investigators will also be searching through computer files that contain the words "steroids" or "peptides," (Gullan, 2013). The AFL has also began to investigate every sports science club since the scandal broke about Essendon.
1. fully co-operate with any investigation.
2. fully and truthfully answer all questions.
3. provide documents whenever requested.
4. Players and coaches who fail to do this face a minimum $10,000 fine.
5. If a breach of this section is referred to the AFL tribunal by the league, there is no limit to the sanctions that can be applied to the offender.
6. The AFL Anti-Doping Code prohibits coaches from supplying and administering performance-enhancing drugs, but not taking them.
7. Separate from the ASADA probe, the AFL also has the power to apply severe sanctions against any individual it believes has brought the game into disrepute," (2013).
Other precautions AFL investigators are taking include reading emails from the past 6 years from sports scientist, Stephen Dank, and also interviewing all players. Investigators will also be searching through computer files that contain the words "steroids" or "peptides," (Gullan, 2013). The AFL has also began to investigate every sports science club since the scandal broke about Essendon.
If he is found guilty, can the AFL punish Hird?
Although Hird is still being questioned by authorities and his possible acts of doping are not even deemed punishable by WADA, due to the fact that he is a coach using illegal substances, the league can still punish Hird. He will not be under oath while he faces drug investigators in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 but if found guilty his acts can still be punishable. Investigators believe that these interviews will go on for months.
If proven guilty, sanctions could include fines, suspension and loss of draft selections for Hird.
If proven guilty, sanctions could include fines, suspension and loss of draft selections for Hird.