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Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs

The focus of researchers, media and policy on doping in cycling is often limited to the professional level of the sport. However, anti-doping test results since 2001 demonstrate that banned substances are also used by US cyclists at lower levels of the sport, necessitating a broader view of the patt...

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Autores principales: Henning, April D., Dimeo, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Informa Healthcare 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4659343/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26692658
http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2015.1029872
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author Henning, April D.
Dimeo, Paul
author_facet Henning, April D.
Dimeo, Paul
author_sort Henning, April D.
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description The focus of researchers, media and policy on doping in cycling is often limited to the professional level of the sport. However, anti-doping test results since 2001 demonstrate that banned substances are also used by US cyclists at lower levels of the sport, necessitating a broader view of the patterns and motivations of substance use within the sport. In this article, we describe and explain the doping culture that has emerged in domestic US cycling among amateur and semi-professionals. Through analysis of records from sports governing bodies and journalistic reports, we assess the range of violation types and discuss the detection and punishing of riders who were not proven to have intended to cheat but became “collateral damage” in the war on doping. We argue that the phenomenon of doping is more complex than what has been shown to occur in elite sport, as it includes a wider variety of behaviours, situations and motivations. We develop fresh insights by examining cases where doping has been accidental, intrinsically motivated, non-performance enhancing or the result of prescribed medical treatments banned by anti-doping authorities. Such trends call into question the fairness of anti-doping measures, and we discuss the possibility of developing localised solutions to testing and sanctioning amateur athletes.
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spelling pubmed-46593432015-12-10 Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs Henning, April D. Dimeo, Paul Drugs (Abingdon Engl) Original Articles The focus of researchers, media and policy on doping in cycling is often limited to the professional level of the sport. However, anti-doping test results since 2001 demonstrate that banned substances are also used by US cyclists at lower levels of the sport, necessitating a broader view of the patterns and motivations of substance use within the sport. In this article, we describe and explain the doping culture that has emerged in domestic US cycling among amateur and semi-professionals. Through analysis of records from sports governing bodies and journalistic reports, we assess the range of violation types and discuss the detection and punishing of riders who were not proven to have intended to cheat but became “collateral damage” in the war on doping. We argue that the phenomenon of doping is more complex than what has been shown to occur in elite sport, as it includes a wider variety of behaviours, situations and motivations. We develop fresh insights by examining cases where doping has been accidental, intrinsically motivated, non-performance enhancing or the result of prescribed medical treatments banned by anti-doping authorities. Such trends call into question the fairness of anti-doping measures, and we discuss the possibility of developing localised solutions to testing and sanctioning amateur athletes. Informa Healthcare 2015-09-03 2015-04-22 /pmc/articles/PMC4659343/ /pubmed/26692658 http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2015.1029872 Text en © 2015 Informa UK Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Henning, April D.
Dimeo, Paul
Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs
title Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs
title_full Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs
title_fullStr Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs
title_full_unstemmed Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs
title_short Questions of fairness and anti-doping in US cycling: The contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs
title_sort questions of fairness and anti-doping in us cycling: the contrasting experiences of professionals and amateurs
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4659343/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26692658
http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2015.1029872
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