“Athlete suspended for presence of banned substance”: A storied approach to protecting student-athletes from doping in sport

ABSTRACT

Banned substance use is a growing issue among student-athlete populations but limited research has addressed this concern. The aim of this research was therefore to explore the lived experience of a sanctioned student-athlete in order to expose the contexts and experiences surrounding their sanction and illuminate student-athlete specific doping risk factors. A narrative approach was adopted and one male student-athlete (“Tyler”) serving a doping sanction was interviewed. Data is presented in the form of a creative non-fiction story. The story demonstrates the interplay between multiple risk factors that ultimately combined and led to Tyler’s doping sanction. Injury and supplementation emerged as particularly significant, as did Tyler’s family life. Informed by the story presented, practical implications are offered for supporting student-athletes in avoiding banned substance use. It is hoped that the story will trigger a critical conversation and collective effort towards proactively protecting student-athletes from their doping susceptibility.

KEYWORDS:

• Doping
• student-athlete
• risk factors
• narrative
• sanctioned athlete

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Kelsey Erickson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Sport, Physical Activity and Leisure (ISPAL) at Leeds Beckett University, UK. Her expertise is in the psychology of drug use in sport and she is particularly interested in developing an understanding of (a) the psychosocial factors that influence appearance and performance enhancing drug use and (b) the issue of whistleblowing on doping. Given her cross-cultural background (former US and UK student-athlete), exploring potential cultural and contextual differences associated with doping and whistleblowing behaviors are also of principal interest.

ORCID

Kelsey Erickson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3226-824X

Notes

1 The terms “collegiate sport” and “university sport” are used interchangeably throughout this paper to refer to the same thing.