Paul Dimeo – författare

This book offers a new history of drug use in sport. It argues that the idea of taking drugs to enhance performance has not always been the crisis or ‘evil’ we now think it is. Instead, the late nineteenth century was a time of some experimentation and innovation largely unhindered by talk of cheating or health risks. By the interwar period, experiments had been modernised in the new laboratories of exercise physiologists. Still there was very little sense that this was contrary to the ethics or spirit of sport. Sports, drugs and science were closely linked for over half a century.

The Second World War provided the impetus for both increased use of drugs and the emergence of an anti-doping response. By the end of the 1950s a new framework of ethics was being imposed on the drugs question that constructed doping in highly emotive terms as an ‘evil’. Alongside this emerged the science and procedural bureaucracy of testing. The years up to 1976 laid the foundations for four decades of anti-doping. This book offers a detailed and critical understanding of who was involved, what they were trying to achieve, why they set about this task and the context in which they worked. By doing so, it reconsiders the classic dichotomy of ‘good anti-doping’ up against ‘evil doping’.

Winner of the 2007 Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for the best book in British sports history.

This book offers a new history of drug use in sport. It argues that the idea of taking drugs to enhance performance has not always been the crisis or ‘evil’ we now think it is. Instead, the late nineteenth century was a time of some experimentation and innovation largely unhindered by talk of cheating or health risks. By the interwar period, experiments had been modernised in the new laboratories of exercise physiologists. Still there was very little sense that this was contrary to the ethics or spirit of sport. Sports, drugs and science were closely linked for over half a century.

The Second World War provided the impetus for both increased use of drugs and the emergence of an anti-doping response. By the end of the 1950s a new framework of ethics was being imposed on the drugs question that constructed doping in highly emotive terms as an ‘evil’. Alongside this emerged the science and procedural bureaucracy of testing. The years up to 1976 laid the foundations for four decades of anti-doping. This book offers a detailed and critical understanding of who was involved, what they were trying to achieve, why they set about this task and the context in which they worked. By doing so, it reconsiders the classic dichotomy of ‘good anti-doping’ up against ‘evil doping’.

Winner of the 2007 Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for the best book in British sports history.

The sense of crisis that pervades global sport suggests that the war on doping is still very far from being won. In this critical and provocative study of anti-doping regimes in global sport, Paul Dimeo and Verner Møller argue that the current system is at a critical historical juncture.

Reviewing the recent history of anti-doping, this book highlights serious problems in the approach developed and implemented by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), including continued failure to accept responsibility for the ineffectiveness of the testing system, the growing number of dubious convictions, and damaging human-rights issues. Without a total rethink of how we deal with this critical issue in world sport, this book warns that we could be facing the collapse of anti-doping, both as a policy and as an ideology.

The Anti-Doping Crisis in Sport: Causes, Consequences, Solutions is important reading for all students and scholars of sport studies, as well as researchers, coaches, doctors and policymakers interested in the politics and ethics of drug use in sport. It examines the reasons for the crisis, the consequences of policy strategies, and it explores potential solutions.

The sense of crisis that pervades global sport suggests that the war on doping is still very far from being won. In this critical and provocative study of anti-doping regimes in global sport, Paul Dimeo and Verner Møller argue that the current system is at a critical historical juncture.

Reviewing the recent history of anti-doping, this book highlights serious problems in the approach developed and implemented by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), including continued failure to accept responsibility for the ineffectiveness of the testing system, the growing number of dubious convictions, and damaging human-rights issues. Without a total rethink of how we deal with this critical issue in world sport, this book warns that we could be facing the collapse of anti-doping, both as a policy and as an ideology.

The Anti-Doping Crisis in Sport: Causes, Consequences, Solutions is important reading for all students and scholars of sport studies, as well as researchers, coaches, doctors and policymakers interested in the politics and ethics of drug use in sport. It examines the reasons for the crisis, the consequences of policy strategies, and it explores potential solutions.

The use of alcohol and drugs seems contradictory to the popular ideal of sport as a healthy moral and physical pursuit, and yet it has been present in sports culture since clubs first became the focus for competitive games and social gatherings. Charting the changing patterns of the use of drugs and alcohol since the nineteenth century, this is a critical history that relates substance consumption and regulation to social relations of power: sports men and women almost revelling in their deviance and leaving the moral agonising to their supposed ‘superiors’. In addition, certain substances have become at various times the focus of heightened controversy, raising questions about the symbolism of the body in sport, its uses and behaviours and associated perceptions. These questions are tackled here in a lively discussion on the social construction of drug and alcohol use, ideal as a catalyst for debate or as an informed introduction to the hottest topic in sport today.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in History.

The use of alcohol and drugs seems contradictory to the popular ideal of sport as a healthy moral and physical pursuit, and yet it has been present in sports culture since clubs first became the focus for competitive games and social gatherings. Charting the changing patterns of the use of drugs and alcohol since the nineteenth century, this is a critical history that relates substance consumption and regulation to social relations of power: sports men and women almost revelling in their deviance and leaving the moral agonising to their supposed ‘superiors’. In addition, certain substances have become at various times the focus of heightened controversy, raising questions about the symbolism of the body in sport, its uses and behaviours and associated perceptions. These questions are tackled here in a lively discussion on the social construction of drug and alcohol use, ideal as a catalyst for debate or as an informed introduction to the hottest topic in sport today.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in History.