Do anti-doping policies truly maintain the fair playing field? For over 50 years, anti-doping policies have sought to regulate the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods in Canadian and international sport. In its Anti-Doping Code, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) claims that such policies “are founded on the intrinsic value of sport…often referred to as the ‘spirit of sport’…the essence of Olympism”.

But do anti-doping policies actually protect these lauded values? And what other motivations might lay behind the creation of these policies?

Join us on March 20 for the second annual Peter Donnelly Lecture in Sport Policy Studies, where keynote speaker Ian Ritchie will explore anti-doping policies from a sociological perspective.

Diving into the factors that gradually but systemically built the “cops and robbers” framing of conversations around anti-doping policies, pitting athletic “cheats” against morally justified anti-doping crusaders, the lecture will confront long-held (and sometimes contentious) ideas around anti-doping policies and their impact on athletes.