ABSTRACT
Chapter nine investigates the impact of the Russian Olympic Doping Scandal on the legitimacy of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The scandal exposed the systematic doping of more than 1,000 athletes across multiple Olympic events. Nations have long strategically pursued sporting success as a form of political supremacy. The revelations of Russian doping placed WADA as an arbitrator of geo-political tensions. The chapter begins by providing a timeline of the key events in the scandal and WADA’s involvement at each stage. The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics and WADA’s management of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s compliance status following the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics were identified as key periods of legitimacy debate. Inspection of these periods indicates that WADA was subject to conflicting expectations of legitimate behaviour from sport-governing bodies and the inter-governmental community. Furthermore, WADA’s response to challenges has been reactive in the form of short-term change to ensure organisational survival relying on a rhetoric of success and avoiding admission of wrongdoing.
