Thirteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

The sports sector has been under scrutiny for some time due to individual and systematic cheating to unfairly profit from doping (Dimeo, and Moller, 2018; Ordway, and Opie 2017; Wilson et al, 2016, Henning, and Dimeo, 2018; Gatterer et al, 2021). This research builds on and expands a range of work in the integrity sector using the athlete voice to gain theoretical understanding with two core goals. The first intends to examine ‘athletes’ experiences in the anti-doping system, managed by World Anti-Doping Authority Program (WADA). The data from the athletes these insights is then analysed to form themes that can be used to better understand how we can improve all components of the anti-doping system. By doing this we aim to build on current areas of exploration in the anti-doping field. Work by Moller, and Christiansen (2022); and Shelley, Thrower, and Petroczi (2021) provide a plethora of areas that need to be better understood. The second goal is to us these insights to help SIA improve their policies, procedures, and resources from education through to the results management process. The research will use a qualitative athlete survey which will be disseminated by the National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO). Australian athletes and Sport Integrity Australia (SIA), the Australian NADO, will provide the source of the data, with athlete surveys in line with previous WADA surveys ad work by Donovan, Jalleh, and Gucciardi (2018).