Perceptions of legitimacy, attitudes and buy-in among athlete groups: A cross-national qualitative investigation providing practical solutions

Summary:

The purpose of this study is to investigate perceived legitimacy, athletes' attitudes, and buy-in towards anti-doping policies in a selection of national contexts and sports. The overall objective is to provide clear, practical guidance as to how to improve the athlete experience to increase levels of perceived legitimacy of anti-doping organizations and regulations among athletes.

Methodology

24 national and international level athletes from 7 countries (Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India, South Africa, U.S., U.K.) and 6 sports (athletics, badminton, cycling, fencing, field hockey, swimming) participated in interviews via video call. Interviews averaged 30 minutes in length and were audio recorded. Each followed an interview guide prepared after analysis of the existing literature on perceived legitimacy. Following transcription, the data were analyzed using both pre-determined themes (i.e. Education; Testing) and codes emerging from the data (i.e. received AD education; never received AD education). There were five resulting central themes: Education, Rules, Testing, NADOs, and Sanctions.

Results

Anti-doping enjoys high levels of legal legitimacy and compliance among athletes. This is most evident in the general acknowledgement that WADA and affiliated NADOs have the authority to set anti-doping rules and then enforce them through testing and sanctions. 1) None of the athletes questioned the existence of the WADA Code or Prohibited Substances List as the binding documents for substance use in sport. 2) Athletes found policies as written to be generally fair, as they are intended to hold all athletes to the same standard. 3) Athletes also reported receiving education and that the educational sessions and  materials were valuable. Athletes were generally eager for more education and resources to be available so they could proactively ensure their compliance. 4) Athletes began to have doubts about anti-doping in the practical application of the  policies and its effectiveness at keeping banned substances out of sport. Athletes  doubted the ability of NADOs in other countries to rigorously test their national athletes, even when they had full confidence in their local NADO to do so.

Significance for Clean Sport

The implementation of these 8 key recommendations could contribute to clean sport:

1) Increase engagement with athletes in settings unrelated to testing, such as through education and resource provision, meet and greets, and via email or social media.

2) Develop resources in partnership with athletes to improve ease of access and overall user experience and to ensure they are practically useful to athletes.

3) Encourage strategies to reduce the predictability of anti-doping testing both in and out of competition.

4) Develop strategies for communicating the amount of testing done across countries.

5) Consider having an external organization that takes an ‘auditing’ approach to all countries and sports to ensure that systems of education and testing are in place.

6) Since athletes are concerned about variability of testing in other countries, new funding models could re-allocate resources to ensure that a minimum level of testing is implemented.

7) Engage with athletes to explore potential solutions to the problem of inadvertent doping.

8) Sanctions could be more clearly designed to punish the organized, deliberate cheats, while being more proportionate towards the less ‘serious’ cases