ABSTRACT
The concept of fair play, understood more broadly as the moral concept of justice, is frequently the first resource when seeking to articulate what is valuable about sport. Long before fair play was theorised in academic journals, the spirit of the concept was present in documentation about early forms of competition, where maintaining the rules and being noble in defeat were an indication of an athlete’s good, moral character (McIntosh, 1979). This has led many researchers to misrepresent the sporting context as something that leads necessarily to the cultivation of moral virtues and desirable behaviours. One has only to examine the world of professional sport to recognise athletes whose behaviour weakens the idea that sport builds some sense of morally admirable character. Nevertheless, it is appealing to believe that sport continues to be a context whereby it is valued largely for being capable of embodying ideals of fairness and equality. There is an expectation (or aspiration) for sport to be fair, even if the athletes participating in competitions fail frequently to achieve such high demands. The ethical principle of fairness has gained unquestionable status in sport, though it is worth explaining why fairness matters in sport. It seems reasonable to claim that fairness is an important guiding principle for athletes’ theorising about what constitutes an ethical or unethical performance enhancement.
