ABSTRACT
Writing in the Guardian about the doping revelations in the 1998 Tour de France, Richard Williams correctly pointed out that doping is ‘generally felt to be the worst of sporting crimes’ (Guardian, 1 August 1998). This view of the seriousness of doping as an offence is widely shared by many people, both inside and outside sport. For example, the former Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe stated that: ‘We consider this [doping] to be the most shameful abuse of the Olympic ideal: we call for the life ban of offending athletes; we call for the life ban of coaches and the so-called doctors who administer this evil’ (see Donohoe and Johnson, 1986:1).
