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Ethics, Doping and the Economic Aspect of Sport

Ali APAYDIN

Physical Education and Sports

PES415: History and Philosophy of P.E.S

Dr. Mehmet Settar KOÇAK

December 12, 2019

Ethics, Doping and the Economic Aspect of Sport

Since the beginning of the history of sports, at the ancient Greece, at foothills of the

Mount Olympus, the goal was always to compete and to be better than the others. Athletes

were chasing physical excellence. However, excellence was not coming cheap. Like

everything else, reaching that level was also coming with a price. Longer hours of training

under the hot, naked sun and on the sand that burns the feet and the soul were examples of

those prices. Eating much more food than an average person eats to gain the bodyweight to

compete better… But maybe the biggest price evolved correlated with the technological

developments of the pharmaceuticals. Performance enhancing drugs started to evolve since

the beginning of the 20th century. The same era that Olympics have resurrected as a sport.

Athletes were now competing at the biggest stage that the world has ever been witnessed and

the competition were at its best. Some athletes started to use drugs to gain advantage over the

others. This process leads a developing doping industry on sports. Sport economy grew more

and more. Human capacities exceeded by the help of these amazing drugs. By the years

passing by more and more athletes started to use drugs to be able to catch the level of the

competition. Moreover, some governments, big sport companies and trainers support and help

athletes along the way. Hollman demanded that: “Olympic sport became a gigantic biological

experiment carried out on the human organism”(Hollman, 1987). From the begging of the

60’s, first the Interntional Olympic Committee (IOC) and later the World Anti Doping

Agency (WADA) tried to implement some anti-doping measures. However, doping lobby

always found a way to trick these measures and tests. Todd & Todd mentioned that:

“At least half of the 9,000 athletes who competed at the Olympics in Seoul used performance-

enhancing drugs in training, according to estimates by medical and legal experts as well as
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traffickers in these drugs. These experts also contend that the drug testing programs of the

IOC and other sports associations have had no impact in reducing the use of such drugs.”

(Todd J, & Todd T, 2000).

Some argued that these measures against doping were necessary to ensure the fair nature of

sports and for the motto of Olympics and what its represent. On the other hand a few handfuls

suggested that, as long as the health of athletes was not affected, than doping should be

allowed and moreover should be supported to increase superhuman performance.

The idea that doping is against the fair nature of the sports competition is the well

accepted opinion on that issue. Additionally, negative health effects of drug abuse on the

athletes support the idea of banning these compounds from the sports organizations. At the

21st June 1961 IOC’s first Medical Committee has established. In 1966, the Committee

demanded that: ‘‘only a long-term education policy stressing the physical and moral aspects’’

of the doping problem would prevent athletes from doping.”(see Hoberman, 2005, for more).

In 1967, IOC has embraced the principle that all Olympic athletes need to sign a pledge that

ensures they are and will never use performance enhancing drugs. However, unfortunately,

these ethical debates and measures were too small against the greed of those athletes have to

win. Some argued that, young athletes were innocent and they were drugged by their trainers

and mentors. Actually, the problem was way more serious than this. Athletes, whether they

were young or not, were eager to win and ready to take all the risks along the way. The first

tragic event took place in 1960 Rome Olympic Games. A Danish cyclist Knud Enemark

Jensen died during a 100km road race due to performance enhancement drug abuse.

(Hoberman, 2005). In 1980 Moscow Olympics, the anabolic side-effects of doping among

East German women athletes were obvious. Their appearances, voice was changing and they

were becoming manly, which were against their nature and moreover their health. Thus, IOC

started to take more serious measures and started to punish to those who were using these
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drugs even they took their medals starting from late 90’s. However, even today doping lobby

finds new ways to ditch those medical tests, and lots of Olympic athletes still using and

abusing these drugs.

Contrary to the popular view, some argues that doping is inevitable and moreover

should not be separated from professional sports to be able to enhance the ultimate human

performance. First view on that is “the libertarian approach” which argues drug tests is against

the right of being an individual. According to that approach, people considered as free beings

and should have independent decisions on their life and about their health. Secondly, a

nationalist approach arises among physicians that wanted their country to win the most

medals. According to that desire, some of them ensure and help the athletes on the process of

using these drugs. For example, in 1969, Dr. H. Kay Dooley, a physician for the USOC,

stated: ‘‘I don’t think it’s possible for a man to compete internationally without using anabolic

steroids. All the weight men on the Olympic team [in 1968] had to take steroids. Otherwise

they would not have been in the running’(Gilbert, 1969). Lastly, Juan Antonio Samaranch

told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo: ‘‘For me everything that does not injure the health of

the athlete is not doping’’(Hoberman, 2005). These last two views, unlike libertarian

approach, is acknowledging the health factors of drug use and argues if the health of the

athlete is not affecting in a bad way than there is nothing wrong to enhance the human

performance even by using pharmaceuticals. On the other hand libertarian approach is

demanding that, everything as well as the health of a person is demanded by that person and

cannot be interfere by anyone or any organizations externally.

To sum up, although there are contrary views on that subject, commonly accepted

view is doping against the ethics and the values of the sports. Thus, professional organizations
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such as IOC and WADA are in constant battle with athletes and trainers who seek an illegal

advantage over others. However, a limit of drug-free athletic performance is questionable and

moreover, believed reached in many sports. John Hoberman believes that: “Doping will be

inevitable and common whenever governments, commercial interests, and sports officials

demand and reward superhuman performances.”(Hoberman, 2005) It is unclear that what will

future shows us and who will be winner of this battle, however, drug industry is expanding

and evolving each year, and the audiences of the sports seek more and more competition and

performance. When you look at sports as an expanding business, I believe the health of

athletes would be seen only as a minor factor in the bigger picture. Sports companies and

governments will cooperate with pharmaceutical companies to enhance super human

performance and gain more and more economic benefits through athletes even it means

threaten their health and their lives. At the end of the day, even though it is believed that sport

has its core values and ethics, it is only a form of entertainment and no one can deny the fact

that superhuman performance is enhancing the element of entertainment, thus, the element of

huge economic benefits. And I believe whether you are IOC or WADA, no one has the power

to stand against that kind of an economic growth and expansion that are created by

pharmaceutical drugs.
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References

Hollmann, W. (1987). Risikofaktoren in der Entwicklung des Hochleistungssports. In: H.

Rieckert (Ed.), Sportmedizin-Kursbestimmung [Deutscher Sporta¨rztekongreX , Kiel, 16–19,

Oktober 1986] (p. 15). Berlin: Springer Verlag

Todd, J., & Todd, T. (2000). Significant events in the history of drug testing and the Olympic

Movement, 1960–1999. In: W. Wilson & E. Derse (Eds), Doping in elite sport: The politics of

drugs in the Olympic Movement. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Gilbert, B. (1969). Problems in a turned-on world. Sports Illustrated, June 23

Hoberman, J. (2005). Olympic drug testing: An interpretive history. In K. Young & K. B.

Wamsley (Eds.), Global Olympics: Historical and Sociological Studies of the Modern Games

(pp. 249-268).