Reporting doping in sport: National level athletes' perceptions of their role in doping prevention

Abstract

This paper qualitatively explores national level athletes' willingness to report doping in sport.Following ethical approval, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine national level athletes from rugby league (n = 5) and track and field athletics (n = 4). Thematic analysis established the main themes within the data. Contextual differences existed around the role that athletes perceived they would play if they became aware of doping. Specifically, track and field athletes would adopt the role of a whistle-blower and report individuals who were doping in their sport. In comparison, the rugby league players highlighted a moral dilemma. Despite disagreeing with their team mates' actions, the players would adhere to a code of silence and refrain from reporting doping. Taking these findings into account, prevention programmes might focus on changing broader group and community norms around doping. In doing so, community members' receptivity to prevention messages may increase. Moreover, developing skills to intervene (e.g., speaking out against social norms that support doping behaviour) or increasing awareness of reporting lines could enhance community responsibility for doping prevention. In sum, the findings highlight the need to consider the context of sport and emphasise that a one-size fits all approach to anti-doping is problematic.

Responses of track and field coaches to athletes with eating problems

“…The first phase involved familiarization and immersion in the data through manual transcription of the interviews and reading and rereading through the whole dataset. This process can facilitate the comprehension of the complexity of the dataset (Smith & Caddick, ; Whitaker et al., ). Initial thoughts about the data were recorded during this phase, prior to the more formal and systematic stages of coding.…”

Performance-Enhancing Substances in Sports: A Review of the Literature

“…Whitaker et al [108] conducted semi-structured interviews on athletes' perceptions of their role in doping prevention. The study concluded that prevention programs would need to focus on changing the broader group and community norms on doping.…”

Promoting Ethics and Integrity in Sport: the Romanian Experience in Whistleblowing

“…Implementation of whistleblowing requires a set of measures adapted to the national context. The identification of the elements responsible for the efficiency of whistleblowing methods, the consistency of measures to protect whistleblowers remain specific to each country and even to the groups of athletes practicing certain sports (Whitaker et al, 2014).…”

“…In this context, however, there are several differences regarding the assumption of warning behaviour, depending on the sport branch. While athletes would notify the authorities if they had information about doping cases, rugby players would adopt a code of silence and would not report the case (Whitaker, Backhouse, & Long, 2014). Against this background, a number of recommendations are formulated on the content of educational programs to be organized so that athletes, coaches and other people involved in the sporting phenomenon are best informed about the risks of consumption of doping substances, take responsibility on preventing this behaviour and engaging in whistleblowing.…”