ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the reactions of a small group of elite level athletes to sports governing bodies’ attempts to proscribe the use of performance enhancing substances in athletic competition. The research interviews were carried out shortly after Diane Modahl, the British 800 m runner, tested positive for testosterone at the European Championships in the summer of 1994. In March 1995, Modahl was exonerated after her legal advisers discovered fundamental flaws in the procedures used by the testing authorities; these interviews were carried out between October 1994 and February 1995 – that is, after Modahl was banned but before she was reinstated. Accordingly, the research process was particularly concerned with the extent to which interviewees’ attitudes had been shaped by their perceptions of Modahl’s experiences. The paper reveals that most of the interviewees radically altered their views on performance enhancing substances and the broader issues of the science and morality of drug testing in the wake of Modahl’s case. The opinion that the science of drug testing is
not as watertight as the governing bodies would have the media, the public and the athletes believe was widely held among those competing at the highest levels in this particular sport.
