Drug Scandal and Organizational Change within the International Ski Federation: A Figurational Approach

Abstract

This paper explores the process of organizational change within the International Ski Federation (FIS) in relation to the issue of doping. More specifically, the paper examines how the FIS adopted the policy established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following a doping scandal in cross-country skiing during the 2001 Nordic World Ski Championship in Lahti, Finland. The qualitative case study reported here draws upon interviews with key actors and the analysis of documents and media text. The paper utilizes a figurational sociological perspective and, in particular, the concept of game models, in order to analyse the roles of different people and organizations in the figuration, and how the increasing interdependency between FIS and WADA and the resulting shift in the balance of power within FIS, led to changes in FIS policy.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank participants at the workshop on organizational change at the EASM conference in Turin 2007, the two anonymous reviewers, the editors of this special issue of the ESMQ and Professor Ken Green for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. The FIS Statutes were last edited in 2006. For the purposes of this paper it is more relevant to refer to the 1996 edition in which the FIS Statutes were in operation during the study period.

2. The FIS decision at the 1983 Congress was: to adapt the FIS doping rules to those of the IOC and other international sports federations (i); to considerably increase the number of unexpected controls at international competitions and during training periods (ii); and to put the necessary funds at the disposal of the FIS Medical Committee for the carrying-out of additional doping tests (iii) (Bergman, 1983, p. 415).

3. Magnar Lundemo, the head coach of the Norwegian cross-country team, told Norwegian journalists that the Finns were involved with blood doping. The claims were treated negatively by the press.

4. According to Videman et al. (2000) the mean values at the 1989 World Championships were 148 g/l for men and 135 g/l for women (reference 156 g/l and 144 g/l). The highest individual values were measured in 1996 (195 g/l for men and 197 g/l for women).

5. The levels are now 170 g/dl for men and 160 g/dl for women.

6. Doping in the Austrian cross-country team was revealed when a homeowner was cleaning the house that had been rented by the team during the Games. She pricked her finger on a needle protruding from a plastic rubbish bag. When she investigated further she found blood bags, tubing with blood residue and vials of vitamins and glucose. Also in the bag was a blood-stained medal certificate (McGrath, 2003).

7. The Austrian cross-country team was also in trouble during the 2006 Torino winter games. Three athletes were sanctioned for violations against the anti-doping rules.

8. Even though the culture continued with a strong President after Kasper succeeded Hodler, there were changes. Kasper was a modern hands-on President working full-time in a professional capacity and installed systems in a number of areas of the administration, such as Finance Director and the accounting system at the FIS Office.

9. One year later, after another crisis, Bengt Erik Bengtsson, FIS race director—who has recently admitted to covering up doping prior to the Lahti World Cahmpionships in 2001—wrote in the FIS Official Bulletin (no. 147 3/2002): “After the two major doping scandals in Lahti 2001 and Salt Lake City 2002 the Cross-Country sport must fight for its existence” (FIS, 2002).

10. The 2001 Alpine Ski World Championship was organized in St Anton, Austria, from 28 January. The closing ceremony was 10 February, five days prior to the opening of the Nordic World Ski Championship.

11. The consequences were that FIS was able to get away with its lax attitude to drugs largely because they enjoyed a high degree of autonomy from outside bodies at this time. FIS was not part of an international collaboration and there were no regulations that committed the parties. The Olympic movement anti-doping code (IOC, 1999), approved during the First World Congress on Doping in Sport in Lausanne in 1999, was a first step but there were no sanctions for non-compliance with the Code. Sanctions came with the WADA Code in 2003.

12. One financial period for the FIS is two years. For 2004–05 the FIS budget on anti-doping was 1,570,000 million CHF (account 1,394,012 million) and for 2006–07 it was 1,695,830 CHF. These figures do not include related costs, such as personnel costs of FIS and costs for legal representatives. (Erb, FIS, Email, 28 November 2007).