Marie Birch Overbye

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

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.

Urine doping controls: the athletes’ perspective

Urine doping controls have become a part of the daily lives of elite athletes. However, little knowledge is available on how athletes perceive these controls. In order to investigate this question, four hundred elite athletes completed an online survey in which they replied to open and closed questions about their experiences. The results showed that athletes approve of doping testing and that the majority of them are careful to report all substances they have consumed. Fear of a false positive test result despite not having taken forbidden substances is of concern for about half of the athletes, and significantly more for female and younger athletes. Furthermore, a third of the athletes report about experiencing stress caused by urination difficulty during the control, and a smaller group (approximately one out of seven) feel their personal integrity is violated because someone is watching them urinate. In addition, a quarter of the athletes feel that urine doping controls performed at their home are an invasion of privacy. Suggestions for the improvement of urine doping controls as well as for future research are given in the article.

Athletes' perceptions of anti-doping sanctions: the ban from sport versus social, financial and self-imposed sanctions

Today the main doping deterrence strategy is to ban athletes from sport if caught. This study examines whether Danish elite athletes perceive the ban as a deterrent and how they evaluate social, self-imposed and financial sanctions compared with the ban. Questionnaires were emailed to elite athletes from 40 sports (N = 645; response rate, 43%). Results showed that 78% of athletes regarded the ban as a deterrent. Older male athletes, however, did so to a lesser degree. Seventy-seven per cent, regardless of gender, age, sport type and previous experience of doping testing, viewed social sanctions as a greater deterrent than the ban. Many also considered self-imposed sanctions (54%) and financial consequences (47%) a greater deterrent. Four per cent considered neither the ban nor the presented alternatives a deterrent. The findings indicate that the ban from sport deters doping. Nevertheless, other deterrents seem to affect athletes more. The findings can be used to address future anti-doping education programmes.

Deterrence by risk of detection? An inquiry into how elite athletes perceive the deterrent effect of the doping testing regime in their sport

Abstract Aims: A central paradigm of global anti-doping policy is detection-based deterrence, i.e. the risk of testing and exclusion from sport are effective doping deterrents. This paper investigates how elite athletes perceive the deterrent effect of the testing strategy in their sport and explores whether and how specific factors such as the frequency of testing influence athletes’ perceptions of testing as a deterrent. Methods: 645 Danish elite athletes completed a web-based questionnaire about their perceptions of testing efforts in their sport. Findings: 75% of the athletes considered the likelihood that a test would prove positive to be a deterrent. By contrast, only 40% found the risk of being selected for testing to be a deterrent. Athletes tested frequently and athletes from doping-risk sports were more likely to perceive testing as a deterrent. In total, 24% regarded neither the likelihood of testing nor detection as deterrents. 8% did not consider the likelihood of testing and detection nor the ban from sport as deterrents. Conclusions: Testing programmes – as a strategy to detect and deter doping – are no great deterrent for many athletes. The results highlight the limitations of detection-based deterrence and emphasise a need to give higher priority to additional prevention-orientated strategies. Recommondations are outlined.

Sponsor networks and business relations orchestrated by team sports clubs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate firms’ reasons and motives for becoming sponsors and how they benefit from this networking engagement by exploring sponsorship networks associated with two Danish team sport clubs – a Premier League football club and a second-division handball club. Design/methodology/approach Two online surveys were conducted with firms associated with the networks during the Autumn and Winter of 2013/2014 (n=116). The questionnaire was theoretically anchored in the existing sponsorship literature, business network research, and social capital theory. Findings The results show that business logics were the dominating reasons for joining the network. A large proportion of the respondents reported having increased their number of business (32 percent) and social (26 percent) relations with other network members after joining the network. Furthermore, 37 percent of the respondents reported having made business agreements with companies external to the network via network contacts, which supports ideas of bridging social capital. More than half the respondents (59 percent) preferred doing business with network members rather than with non-members. Originality/value By investigating a local and regional sport club context, the paper adds to our knowledge about sponsorship networks. It emphasizes the potential importance of team sport clubs for the business landscape, thus maintaining that sport clubs fulfill an important role for local communities beyond being mere entertainment industries.