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The purpose of this paper is to assess the institutional mechanisms for combating doping in high-level sport, including the trend toward using legalistic frameworks, and how they contribute to notions of deviance.

A historical approach informed by recent criminological adaptations of genealogy was utilized, using primary and secondary sources.

Three time periods involving distinct frameworks for combating doping were identified, each with their own advantages and limitations: pre-1967, post-1967 up until the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999, and post-1999.

This study contextualizes the recent legalistic turn toward combating doping in sport, bringing greater understanding to the limitations of present anti-doping practices.

There are two key approaches in doping prevention research: (1) to investigate why athletes dope (i.e. risk factors) and (2) to investigate why athletes do not dope (i.e. protective factors). Both approaches aim to reduce the occurrence of doping. Even though there is a lot of evidence showing which factors protect athletes from doping, there is still the problem of putting research into practice. Currently, evidence-based prevention is lacking. In this chapter, we propose a roadmap of possible solutions in three areas: improving the translation of research findings into practice, increasing financial resources and training of human resources, and acknowledging the recipients' voice.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) through the theoretical framework of meta-organizations that focusses on organizations that are themselves made up of organizations.

The data are drawn from a unique case study based on interviews with WADA experts and documentary analysis.

The authors analyzed WADA through the organizational and strategic dimensions of meta-organizations, which are themselves each defined by two criteria: the mission and scope of the organization vs the hierarchical stratification and decision-making process. The findings suggest that the WADA can be examined through the lens of meta-organizational theory. The criterion of consensus in the decision-making process has already been put forward by scholars, but it needs to be nuanced in the study since it is not the only process used by WADA in its decision-making.

The paper enhances the understanding of a specific international sports organization at the heart of current major sports issues and enriches the literature on meta-organizational theory, which is a relatively recent development. A next step is a longitudinal study, focussing on the decision-making process and the evolution of a meta-organization over time.

While the meta-organization has been considered recently in the management literature, this paper seeks to advance the discussion by linking it to the international sports field to gain more insight into its complexity.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the functioning of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), an organisation that is coordinated by national governments and private sporting organisations to fight doping in sport. Drawing on official WADA documents and one of the authors’ first-hand knowledge of WADA’s workings, we begin by presenting the agency’s objectives, its joint Olympic Movement-public authorities governance structure, its stakeholders and its more important procedures. WADA is currently facing a number of challenges it must overcome if it is to ensure effective cooperation between governments and the sports movement and continue leading the fight against doping. We next briefly examine these challenges, which affect four main issues: athlete testing, compliancy by anti-doping stakeholders, governance structures and the agency funding. We conclude our analysis by suggesting possible ways of addressing these issues, drawn up in light of semi-directive interviews carried out in September 2016 with two senior representatives of WADA, two UNESCO representatives responsible for cooperation with WADA and two experts in national and international doping legislation. These data were complemented by discussions with stakeholders attending the three-day symposium held by WADA in Lausanne in March 2017. The conclusion stresses the need for WADA to restore public and government confidence in its work, 17 years after it was created.

This chapter introduces the main aims and ambition with the anthology, which is to bring together research from diverse perspectives on doping and Image and Performance Enhancing Drug (IPED) use. The chapter highlights existing but often backgrounded links between sport and fitness doping research and present a re-reading of the cultural history of doping through which simplistic divisions, such as that between sport and fitness, are deconstructed. Further, by unbinding the hegemonic divide between sports doping and fitness doping, new insights (and themes) concerning anti-doping, health and risk, new emerging doping spaces and the gendering of this field of research are brought to the fore. These themes are then used as point of departure when introducing the different chapters and scholars that contribute to the volume at hand.

This chapter concludes the volume. This is done in two capacities. First, the contributing chapters within in each theme are brought together through a reflexive discussion on current debates on anti-doping approaches, health and risk, doping arenas and communities, and the gendering of doping. Second, the interrelationships between the themes are discussed, pointing to new research directions.

The aim of this review was to amalgamate the extant literature that has investigated the experiences of healthcare professionals with PIED consumers and the experiences of PIED consumers with healthcare professionals, with a specific focus on medical practitioners. A systematic search was undertaken to identify studies that explored the experiences and perspectives of healthcare providers working with clients who use PIEDs, as well as to identify studies that explored the experiences and perspectives of PIED consumers with healthcare providers. Ten studies were included, of which four explored the experiences of healthcare providers with PIED consumers, and six explored the experiences of PIED consumers with healthcare providers. A sizeable proportion of healthcare providers come into contact with PIED consumers, with these interactions mostly related to consumers asking for information, though a small but significant proportion indicate they have been asked to prescribe doping agents. Of the six studies which focused on the consumer experience, five focused on PIED consumers; these studies found that while large proportions reporting accessing a medical practitioner, larger proportions did not, with the doctor's lack of knowledge cited as one reason. More research is needed to investigate how they come into contact with this group of consumers, their level of knowledge and any training that they may need. Given the harms associated with PIED use, and the lack of disclosure of use to healthcare providers, more research is needed to understand the barriers and facilitators for consumers to accessing health care.

The purpose of this paper is to report on aspects of service quality at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, from a rather unusual perspective, the athletes. To date there has been little evidence captured about athlete’s satisfaction at sporting events, and specifically about their perceptions of the service quality provided.

Unique “full” access to the London 2012 Paralympics allowed to the collection of data directly from the athletes. The study reports the questionnaire findings from a sample of 250 respondents.

From this study an operational assessment and performance framework has been generated composed of ten criteria and 73 items or sub-criteria, which can be used as a benchmarking tool to plane, design and compare future sport mega-event. Moreover, the study evidence based the high quality of the 2012 Paralympics Games, as he athletes rated, on a five point Likert scale, 64 items in the “very satisfied” category, a very positive set of feedback for the Games organisers.

The methodology applied was appropriate, generating data to facilitate discussion and draw specific conclusions from. A perceived limitation is the single case approach; however, this can be enough to add to the body of knowledge where very little evidence has been captured so far and where the objectives were to explore the Paralympics games service quality and performance.

This research provides a tangible evidence base to support future sport event decision makers, planners and designers in this highly complex “arena”. In any system there are always areas for improvement, these are highlighted within the paper for further investigation.

This is the first paper to identify and synthesize aspects of sport mega event service quality from the athletes viewpoint and informs how well designed, organised and managed the London 2012 Games were from a primary user perspective. The paper makes a defined contribution by developing evidence based recommendations for this important yet under researched area.