The Naked Spirit of Sport: A Framework for Revisiting the System of Bans and Justifications in the World Anti-Doping Code

The Landscape of the “Spirit of Sport”

“…In as much as the spirit of sport notion continues to be the prima facie cornerstone justification for anti-doping worldwide (Kornbeck 2013), a full comprehension of how WADA's spirit of sport is understood in the literature is vital not only to unravel the core of the debates, but also to move the conversation forward. This is especially important as discussions are currently ongoing regarding the 2021 version of the Code.…”

“…(Ritchie 2013) Accounts tracing the historical origins of the spirit of sport clause postulated that the spirit of sport clause was employed as an instrumentation to deliberately propagate a pre-set agenda through the Code (Ritchie 2013(Ritchie , 2014Waddington et al 2014). It was suggested by some commentators, that such purposes include, inter alia, the inclusion of non-performance enhancing substances on the Prohibited List and the insulation of WADA from outside scrutiny and criticism (Kornbeck 2013;Wadddington et al 2013;Mulhall 2006).…”

“…Arguments advanced in the literature contend that the words that the Code employs to portray the spirit of sport are not in Loland and Hoppeler 2012). The following quote illustrates: "… the "Spirit of Sport" is not really defined in the Code, but rather illustrated: however, the concepts used to illustrate it are often very general …" (Kornbeck 2013).…”

The ‘spirit of sport’, WADAs code review, and the search for an overlapping consensus

“…Still, much scholarship and professional discussion has centred on this criterion pointing to its falling well short of an adequate conceptual analysis or even a prescriptive definition. 5 Scholars and anti-doping personnel argued during the last WADA Code Review process (2011-13) that the first two criteria on performanceenhancement and health were sufficient to draw lines between permissible and prohibited substances and methods and determine the PL, and that the latter normative criterion was vague and with little operative force and could be deleted (Kayser et al 2007, Kornbeck 2013). For the first two rounds of the review process this had been recommended, but in the final round the normative criterion was kept.…”

“…These criteria have been the core of academic contention. While some scholars have argued for the need for explicit normative premises such as 'the spirit of sport' (Loland and McNamee 2016), others have argued for its abolition due to its inoperability (Kayser et al 2007, Kornbeck 2013.…”