Experiences, attitudes and trust: an inquiry into elite athletes’ perception of the whereabouts reporting system

Abstract

The duty of elite athletes to report whereabouts is a controversial and debated element of the World Anti-Doping Code. Though the obligation to provide whereabouts information has a real impact on athletes' daily lives, knowledge about athletes' perception of and trust in the system after the Code was revised in 2009 is still scarce. This study contributes to the discussion on the legitimacy and institutionalization of the whereabouts system by integrating the points of view of Danish elite athletes (with/without whereabouts obligations). In total, 645 athletes completed a web-based questionnaire about their perceptions of the whereabouts system. The results showed that elite athletes' perceptions were ambivalent: a majority of athletes seemed to accept the system as a necessity, a duty or a compliment to their sporting level. On the other hand, the system did, to a greater or lesser degree, interfere negatively in everyday life: three quarters of the athletes felt reporting whereabouts was too time-consuming; fear of a warning was a concern for more than half of the athletes; four in ten found their joy of being an elite athlete was reduced; and four in ten experienced the system as surveillance. Athletes' trust in the system was remarkably low when it came to questions concerning how it operated in other countries and its ability to catch doped athletes. A particular remarkable finding is that distrust seemed to increase once athletes had personal experience of reporting whereabouts. This must be considered a major challenge for future anti-doping policymaking.

French speaking athletes’ experience and perception regarding the whereabouts reporting system and therapeutic use exemptions

“…There were similarities with the Danish study (Overbye & Wagner, 2014) concerning the perceived necessity of anti-doping controls (Danish study 84%, our study 94%). Both groups also agreed that providing whereabouts data is part of one's duty as an elite athlete (Danish study 83%, our study 71%).…”

“…Another important issue raised by the athletes in our study, the same raised by the Danish (Overbye & Wagner, 2014) and Norwegian athletes (Hanstad et al, 2009), was the perception of inequality of testing and lack of harmonisation between countries. In our study 82% of those having had an experience with the whereabouts system perceived the implementation of the whereabouts system around the world to be unfair, similar to the result of the Danish study (95%).…”

“…We used an online questionnaire 1 based on the questionnaires from the Danish study on whereabouts (Overbye & Wagner, 2014), 1 The questionnaire can be obtained upon request from the authors.…”

“…This would mean fewer breaches and would be easier to manage by the athlete". Danish athletes reported quite similar impressions (40% felt under surveillance and 41% experienced a decrease in the joy of being an elite athlete when complying with whereabouts obligations) (Overbye & Wagner, 2014) and 25% of Norwegian athletes also considered that the whereabouts obligation negatively impacted their life as an elite athlete (Hanstad et al, 2009). Thus, the feeling that the whereabouts system had a negative impact on everyday life and privacy was relatively strong among French-speaking athletes.…”

“…It has been criticised by researchers, wellknown athletes and athlete's organisations (Kayser, Mauron, & Miah, 2007;Møller, 2011;Overbye & Wagner, 2014;Waddington, 2010). Furthermore, a few studies have investigated athletes' perception and experience with the whereabouts system in Norway (Hanstad, Skille, & Loland, 2010;Hanstad, Skille, & Thurston, 2009), the Netherlands (Valkenburg, de Hon, & van Hilvoorde, 2014), in Denmark (Overbye & Wagner, 2014) and with TUEs in Denmark (Overbye & Wagner, 2013). These studies suggest that elite athletes in principle approve of anti-doping testing and accept the whereabouts rules as part of their duty, but are critical of the whereabouts system's managerial aspects.…”