Doping in sports and the fight against it has gained increasing attention in recent years. The pharmacological basis for a possible performance enhancement in competitive sport through the administration of prohibited substances and methods as well as the analytical disclosure of such practices are comprehensively covered in 21 contributions by outstanding and distinctive authors.

Doping is as old as organized sports. From baseball to horse racing, cycling to track and field, drugs have been used to enhance performance for 150 years. For much of that time, doping to do better was expected. It was doping to throw a game that stirred outrage. Today, though, athletes are vilified for using performance-enhancing drugs. Damned as moral deviants who shred the fair-play fabric, dopers are an affront to the athletes who don’t take shortcuts. But this tidy view swindles sports fans. While we may want the world sorted into villains and victims, putting the blame on athletes alone ignores decades of history in which teams, coaches, governments, the media, scientists, sponsors, sports federations, and even spectators have played a role. The truth about doping in sports is messy and shocking because it holds a mirror to our own reluctance to spit in the soupthat is, to tell the truth about the spectacle we crave. In Spitting in the Soup, sports journalist Mark Johnson explores how the deals made behind closed doors keep drugs in sports. Johnson unwinds the doping culture from the early days, when pills meant progress, and uncovers the complex relationships that underlie elite sports culturethe essence of which is not to play fair but to push the boundaries of human performance. It’s easy to assume that drugs in sports have always been frowned upon, but that’s not true. Drugs in sports are old. It’s banning drugs in sports that is new. Spitting in the Soup offers a bitingly honest, clear-eyed look at why that’s so, and what it will take to kick pills out of the locker room once and for all.

Doping, Performance-Enhancing Drugs, and Hormones in Sport: Mechanisms of Action and Methods of Detection examines the biochemistry and bioanalytical aspects of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and other questionable procedures used by athletes to enhance performance. The book informs the specialist of emerging knowledge and techniques and allows the non-specialist to grasp the underlying science and current practice of the discipline. With clear and compelling language appropriate for a broad spectrum of readers, this book provides background on prevalence, types of agents, their actual or supposed benefits, and their negative effects on health. The technical aspects of detection are discussed, followed by a discussion of why detection is a problematic and still-evolving science. To facilitate comprehension, each chapter is organized in a uniform way with six sections: (1) standard medical uses, (2) why the drugs are used by athletes, (3) biological mechanism of action, (4) what research says about efficacy in improving performance, (5) major health side effects from use and abuse in sport, and 6) concluding key points. Presents the scientific concepts of how performance enhancers work, how they are used, and how they are detected and masked from detection Features language that is neither simplistic to scientists nor too sophisticated for a large, diverse global audience Provides a short “close-up in each chapter to illustrate key topics that engage, entertain, and create a novel synthesis of thought

​​This book examines sports doping from production and distribution, detection and punishment. Detailing the daily operations of the trade and its gray area as a semi-legal market, the authors cover important issues ranging from athletes most at risk to the role of organized crime in sports doping, and whether sports governing bodies are enabling the trade. Challenges for law enforcement and legislation, and efforts to control PED use in the worldwide sports community and among aspiring athletes, are also discussed in depth. The book's extensive research:• Estimates the demand for performance-enhancing products. • Traces the route from legal substances to illegal uses. • Identifies classes of suppliers and their methods of operation. • Tracks typical distribution systems from suppliers to users. • Examines the economics of the market: prices, profits, revenue. • Assesses the state of anti-doping law enforcement efforts.Starting with an unprecedented case study in Italy, the intense scrutiny from one pivotal country yields a potential template for research and policy on a world scale. Doping and Sport makes solid contributions to the work of researchers in criminology and criminal justice, particularly with an interest in corruption, drug trafficking, and criminal networks; researchers in sports science and public health; and policymakers.

This unique international legal and cross-disciplinary edited volume contains analysis of the legal impact of doping regulation by eminent and well known experts in the legal fields of sports doping regulation and diverse legal fields which are intrinsically important areas for consideration in the sports doping landscape. These are thoughtful extended reflections by experts on theory and policy and how they interact with law in the context of doping in sport. It is the first book to examine the topical and contentious area of sports doping from a variety of different but very relevant legal perspectives which impact the stakeholders in sport at both professional and grass roots levels. The World Anti-Doping Code contains an unusual mix of public and private regulation which is of more general interest and fully explored in this work. Each of the 14 chapters addresses doping regulation from a legal perspective such as tort, corporate governance, employment law, human rights law, or a scientific area. Legal areas are generally considered from an international and not national perspective. Issues including fairness, logic and the likelihood of compliance are explored. It is vital reading for anyone interested in the law, regulation and governance of sport.

The use of performance-enhancing substances by athletes has a long history, predating the ancient Greek Olympiads. This report compares anti-doping policies for performance enhancing substances among the Olympic movement and three professional sports - Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NFL.

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.