ABSTRACT
The ways in which anti-doping policy was enhanced and globalised by WADA has had significantly damaging effects. The strict liability principle means that many athletes have been caught and sanctioned for doping when they have not knowingly taken a banned substance. We review cases from the period before WADA was established to show there was some precedence to this problem which was ignored in the production of the World Anti-Doping Code. Inconsistent approaches to recreational drug use, and cases of contamination from supplements, medicines, food and other people are presented to show how problematic the policy has become. Yet, athletes who are victims of the system due to inadvertent doping have very little chance of mounting an appeal and they face social stigma similar to those who deliberately cheat. The consequences are the opposite of the intention of anti-doping: athletes’ health is harmed; the level playing is not levelled; and the outcomes are not part of the ‘spirit of sport’. If innocent athletes are punished, then the organisations responsible are acting in an unethical way, which promotes the façade of justice but does not serve justice itself.
