Anti-Doping in Sport a Study of Policy Development Since 1998
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Dag Vidar Hanstad Anti-Doping in Sport A Study of Policy Development since 1998 DISSERTATION FROM THE NORWEGIAN SCHOOL OF SPORT SCIENCES • 2009 ISBN nr 978-82-502-0424-9 For Jørgen, Jacob and Jonas Acknowledgements I was inspired by my former neighbor to start this project. Every day he arrived from work early in the afternoon in his Mercedes, bigger and more expensive than my old Audi, to a house bigger and more expensive than mine. During weekends and holidays he spent plenty of time with his family and friends in his mountain cabin. My neighbor had a PhD from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NSSS, henceforth NIH). Life as an academic looked alluring for a journalist like me, traveling a lot in a stressful job - usually challenged to reach deadline for the next edition. Could it be something for me? More than searching for longer vacations I was fascinated by the idea of working in depth with my main interest as a journalist: politics, power and anti- doping in sport. Many thanks to my former neighbor in Kristiansand, Bjørn Tore Johansen, who encouraged me to go on with the project. Lars Tore Ronglan, an old friend and teammate in handball (with a PhD from NIH), was the next one who supported the idea. He opened some doors at NIH, for example the one into Sigmund Loland’s office. Sigmund was of great help and gave me advice and ideas to go on with a PhD. I do not know what Sigmund actually knew about my academic skills, but I am afraid he overestimated me as a scholar. However, I am glad that he did not tell about all the challenges I should meet as an academic newcomer. There are some common elements between journalistic and scientific activities, but obviously also differences. I am grateful for Sigmund’s role as supervisor, which has overlapped with his first period as rector at the NIH. Therefore we early in the process involved visiting professor Ivan Waddington as a co-supervisor. Ivan has for decades done research on doping and anti-doping with a sociological approach, and has been of vital importance. He deserves thanks for his patience to make me think more as a sociologist. The challenge is not fulfilled. In addition Ivan has been vital in his contributions to cleaning up my English. During my period as a PhD student at NIH I have met many able and helpful colleagues and, in particular, my colleagues at the Department for Cultural and Social Studies, who are involved in history, sociology, philosophy and sport management. Their different interests have provided daily intellectual stimulation and the section’s research seminars, touching all these academic fields, have been of special help for my research. Many thanks to the head of the Department, Matti Goksøyr, for initiating the seminars and his general contribution to the PhD students’ working conditions. I have been part of the program for Sport Management. I am grateful to Berit Skirstad and Kari Steen-Johnsen for their collaboration during the last four years. Berit’s thoroughness and leadership of the program have been of great help. Kari’s academic skills have been of vital value to me. Together we have done research on topics outside my PhD. I have also written scientific papers with Eivind Å. Skille, who was part of the Sport Management program at NIH before he left to go to Hedmark University College in 2005. Thanks to a good colleague and a good friend for his contribution. i In addition, in alphabetical order, I want to thank the following for practical assistance during the process: Rune Andersen, Svein Andersen, Ola Bernhus, Trond Glasser, Ken Green, Solveig Jølstad, Tom Floritz Laursen, Øyvind Mehus Sjursen, Hans B. Skaset, Anders Solheim, Andy Smith, Miranda Thurston, Britt Vold, Jens Weinreich, staff at the NIH library, and Tove Riise and Liv Korsmo at the printing office. Finally, I want to thank my family. First my parents who gave me freedom in childhood, and ever since have supported my choices, also when I considered to start on this project. One of the objectives in leaving journalism was to stay more at home. In my opinion this goal has been achieved but I am not sure if my partner Trine agrees. I have obviously traveled less than before, but not always been present mentally. It is difficult to leave a PhD project in the office when going home at night, but with Trine’s understanding and support the four years at NIH altogether have been family friendly. Oslo, 23 April 2009, Dag Vidar Hanstad ii Abstract The aim of this study is to analyze in a systematic and critical way the many more or less interconnected processes shaping anti-doping work at different levels since the doping scandal in the Tour de France cycle race in 1998. More specifically, this dissertation is an investigation of anti-doping policies in international sport with a particular emphasis on the power relations between units at different levels. The main research question is: How can the development of anti-doping policy since 1998 be understood? The main theoretical framework is figurational sociology. Norbert Elias introduces the concept of figuration as a way of overcoming the individual–society dichotomy. Sociology should be concerned with viewing the social world as open pluralities of interdependent people bonded together in dynamic constellations. Elias saw game models as a means of isolating in close focus the intertwining of the aims and actions of pluralities of people, thereby making these complex processes more easily understandable The study is comprised of four qualitative case studies. Because of the complexity of the development of anti-doping policy it was necessary to confine the study to some key units and the relationships between them. This was done by picking out one case study at each of the following levels; the global (paper I), international (paper II), national (paper III) and the individual athlete’s level (paper IV). Paper I examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA), which was established following the World Conference on Doping in Sport convened by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and held in Lausanne in 1999. More specifically, the paper draws upon Elias’s game models to analyze: (i) the way in which the IOC sought to manage this process of change in such a way that its longstanding position as the world’s leading anti-doping organization would be reinforced; and (ii) the IOC’s inability to control this process. The result was that the IOC failed to achieve any of its objectives, its position as the world’s anti-doping organization was actually undermined, and world leadership passed to a new organization which had a significant measure of independence from the IOC. Paper II 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 roles of different people and organizations in the figuration are analyzed. The analysis focuses on shifts in the balance of power within FIS and the increasing interdependency between FIS and WADA. This led to changes in FIS policy. Paper III explores the relationships and tensions in doping issues between politicians and bureaucrats in the public sector and the leadership in voluntary sport organizations – core units in the anti-doping activity at national level after the establishment of WADA. More specifically, this is an analysis of the case where the Director General of the Norwegian Department of Sport Policy (DSP) in the Ministry of Cultural and Church Affairs expressed his personal/political opinion about anti-doping in public, and played the game in two figurations. First, the game was played in the sport figuration, where the Director General’s competitors were the leaders of the voluntary sport organization (the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, NOC). Second, the game moved up a level and was played in a political figuration, where the Director General’s competitors were the political leadership in the Department. The combination of a unified sport figuration and the formal power in the political figuration led to an outcome that no one had intended, namely the resignation of the Director General. iii Paper IV explains and reflects critically upon the athlete whereabouts reporting system in top-level sports initiated by the WADA. This system makes it compulsory for athletes who are in a registered testing pool in their national and/or international federation to submit information about their whereabouts. In this way, athletes are required to be accessible for no- advance notice doping tests all year round. The system is controversial. In this article we examine some of the objections to the system and, more specifically, objections connected to ideas of justice and athletes’ autonomy and right to self-determination. The argument is a practical ethical one informed by a survey on attitudes towards the whereabouts system carried out among 236 athletes belonging to the registered testing pool in Norway. In the dissertation’s introduction the activities on all these levels are woven together to demonstrate how different units and levels are interdependent with each other. In sum, the study shows that the number of organizations in what is defined the anti-doping figuration has increased during the last decade. At global level the establishment of the world Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the involvement of governments have resulted in what may seem to be a more effective fight against doping.