The normative discourse of anti-doping policy

Abstract

Despite the progress made towards integrating global anti-doping efforts, the use of performance-enhancing substances in sport remains a legitimate, if misunderstood, concern. While public attitudes have become increasingly tolerant towards methods of performance enhancement in everyday matters, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and its related organizations continue to take a strong prohibitive stance against performance enhancement in sport. This study employs methods of critical discursive analysis in an investigation of the World Anti-Doping Code. While research in this area has become somewhat prolific, systematic analyses of this type are few. The text of the World Anti-Doping Code was analysed for the evidence of discursive themes, which were then combined and interpreted to produce more comprehensive discourses. The findings of this study suggest two major discourses to which the text in question contributes: a discourse of authority, and a normative discourse of sport. These discourses produce a system that makes it easier for WADA to maintain unquestioned authority and use this authority to constrain the conditions under which sport may exist.

Keywords:

• discourse analysis
• anti-doping
• sport policy

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful suggestions. I also want to acknowledge Dr. Tracie Harrison and Dr. Thomas Hunt, who provided comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Notes

1. Indeed, the most current version of the World Anti-Doping Code used in this project did not exist at the time of Sluggett’s (2007) study.

2. In his discussion of hegemony, Fairclough draws extensively upon Gramsci (1971).

3. The statements provided in this section serve as selected examples, not as an exhaustive account of the text.

4. Therapeutic use exemptions are granted to athletes who exhibit a legitimate medical need to use a substance that is otherwise prohibited by the Code.

5. Constitutive rules are agreed-upon conditions necessary for sport. For example, field boundaries, a goal and the agreement to not touch the ball with one’s hands are constitutive rules of soccer.