scholarly journals When Rituals Fail: Confessions of Doping in Elite Sports

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 605
Author(s):  
Annie Blazer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Elite Sport ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Steroid Use ◽  
Performance Enhancing Drugs ◽  
Charles Finney ◽  
Elite Sports

In the nineteenth century, Protestant reformers declared: Sport builds character. They described sport as ethically valuable and as an experiential tool to teach values and cooperation. However, sports have long raised ethical challenges when it comes to fairness in competition. This article examines controversies over performance enhancing drugs and pays attention to the rituals of confession at play for those caught doping. Nineteenth-century revivalist Charles Finney formalized a ritual practice that became known as the “anxious bench”. Finney would demand that a sinner sit on the bench, separated from others because of their sinfulness, and confess their sinful ways in order to re-devote themselves to God and goodness. Turning to steroid use in Major League Baseball and Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal, I consider how rituals of confession based on the anxious bench failed to redeem these athletes because the athletes themselves resisted the premise. Rituals of confession preserve an underlying ideology that sport is morally valuable. When these rituals fail, they reveal less noble structural motivations that lead to doping in the first place like monetary reward, intense pressure to perform, and the entertainment demands of elite sport.

scholarly journals The Athlete Biological Passport

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 969-976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre-Edouard Sottas ◽  
Neil Robinson ◽  
Olivier Rabin ◽  
Martial Saugy
Keyword(s):  
Drug Testing ◽  
Physiological Condition ◽  
Biomarker Discovery ◽  
Physiological Changes ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Biological Passport ◽  
Performance Enhancing Drugs ◽  
Immense Potential ◽  
Elite Sports ◽  
Testing Paradigm

BACKGROUND In elite sports, the growing availability of doping substances identical to those naturally produced by the human body seriously limits the ability of drug-testing regimes to ensure fairness and protection of health. CONTENT The Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), the new paradigm in testing based on the personalized monitoring of biomarkers of doping, offers the enormous advantage of being independent of this endless pharmaceutical race. Doping triggers physiological changes that provide physiological enhancements. In the same way that disease-related biomarkers are invaluable tools that assist physicians in the diagnosis of pathology, specifically selected biomarkers can be used to detect doping. SUMMARY The ABP is a new testing paradigm with immense potential value in the current climate of rapid advancement in biomarker discovery. In addition to its original aim of providing proof of a doping offense, the ABP can also serve as a platform for a Rule of Sport, with the presentation before competition of the ABP to objectively demonstrate that the athlete will participate in a healthy physiological condition that is unaltered by performance-enhancing drugs. Finally, the decision-support system used today for the biological monitoring of world top-level athletes can also be advantageously transferred to other areas of clinical practice to reach the goal of personalized medicine.

scholarly journals Disciplinary Power, the Oligopticon and Rhizomatic Surveillance in Elite Sports Academies

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 303-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Manley ◽  
Catherine Palmer ◽  
Martin Roderick
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Elite Sport ◽  
Surveillance Networks ◽  
Disciplinary Power ◽  
Surveillance Technology ◽  
And Control ◽  
Elite Sports

This article aims to apply a post-panoptic view of surveillance within the context of elite sport. Latour’s (2005) ‘oligopticon’ and Deleuze and Guttari’s (2003) ‘rhizomatic’ notion of surveillance networks are adopted to question the relevance and significance of Foucault’s (1979) conceptualisation of surveillance within an elite sports academy setting. A contemporary representation of bio-politics (Rose 1999, 2001) is further utilised to discern the mode of governance and control effective within such institutions. In so doing, this article seeks to understand the evolving methods of surveillance technology and governance and how they are situated within the setting of a contemporary institution. Such considerations aim to provoke a line of questioning surrounding the normalisation of intrusive surveillance practices and their impact upon identity construction and an authentic sense of self.

Impacts of Performance-Enhancing Drug Suspensions on the Demand for Major League Baseball

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-419
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Cisyk
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Reaction ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Major League ◽  
Performance Enhancing Drugs ◽  
Television Audience ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Audience Size ◽  
Performance Enhancing

In 2005, Major League Baseball (MLB) introduced a new policy regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) wherein the league would not only suspend but also publicly name any player who tested positive for banned PEDs. Using the estimated television audience size of MLB games from 2006 to 2012, these PED suspension announcements provide a unique natural experiment to test how consumers react to news of PED use. This study finds that PED announcements have two major impacts on the demand for baseball. First, there is on average an immediate 9.3% reduction in the television audience of the PED player’s team. Second, the magnitude of the effect gradually decreases over time yet remains negative and significant for a period of 37 days or approximately 33 game-broadcasts. This is the first study to link PED use to an adverse reaction by consumers in a systematic way using television audience while controlling for the change in team quality caused by removing the suspended player from the team.

‘I Will once more shake the heavens’: the 1762 Revival in Wales

2008 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 154-163
Author(s):  
Eryn M. White
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The Future ◽  
John Owen ◽  
Charles Finney

The Evangelical Revival in eighteenth-century Wales actually consisted of a number of separate ‘great collective spiritual outpourings’, as John Walsh described them, which seem to have been completely spontaneous and unplanned. By the nineteenth century, periodic revivals had become accepted as a characteristic of Welsh Nonconformity, but were perhaps increasingly less spontaneous. Historians have suggested that arranged revivals became more common in a Welsh context as a result of the influence of the ideas of Charles Finney in the 1830s and 1840s. Daniel Rowland’s first biographer, John Owen, condemned this as a ‘forcing system’ which he thought was ‘calculated only to increase the number of unsound professors’. In contrast, Owen emphasized the genuine unplanned nature of the eighteenth-century revivals. This paper examines the origins and influence of one of those unplanned revivals which occurred between 1762 and 1764, the first general renewal of Calvinistic Methodism in Wales after its initial beginning in the 1730s and the model for the future revivalist tradition.

scholarly journals The deposition of bronzes at Swiss lakeshore settlements: new investigations

Antiquity ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (330) ◽  
pp. 1298-1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoria Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Shallow Water ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Special Places

The famous lakeside sites of Switzerland have long been known for their pile dwellings and their massive quantities of Late Bronze Age metalwork. On the most recent excavations, the bronzes have been mapped in situ, allowing comparison with assemblages from dryland sites and rivers, as well as providing a context for the nineteenth-century collections. The pile dwellings emerge as special places where depositions of selected bronze objects in groups or as single discards, comparable to those usually found in dryland deposits or in rivers, accumulated in the shallow water during a unique 250-year spell of ritual practice.

scholarly journals Asian Games Success 2018 : Policy Elite Athlete Development and Development Indonesia

MAENPO ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Adi Rahadian ◽  
Amung Ma’mun ◽  
Berliana Berliana ◽  
Nuryadi Nuryadi
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Elite Athlete ◽  
International Competition ◽  
International Level ◽  
Elite Sport ◽  
Sport Science ◽  
Policy Elite ◽  
Sport Events ◽  
International Sport ◽  
Elite Sports

The success of elite sports in Indonesia plays an important role in building and constructing national identity. Along its development, the success of sport is pictured as symbol of national resurrection and sport winner as national icon. Status and power of sports Indonesia among other countries is measured by the country’s success of having achievement in international sport events. Elit sport development are implemented through sport introduction stage, monitoring, fostering, also developing talent and improving achievement (UU SKN No. 3 Tahun 2005). The system of elite sport development in Indonesia which is oriented to: a) build elite’s facility; b) support for athletes; c) provide training and sport science; and d) centered competition opportunity (Pelatnas) in the preparation of international competition. This study explores the sports achievements of Indonesia with the aims of maximizing the policy of elite sport development in Indonesia. The achievements of elite sports are the pride of the country, including obtaining diplomatic recognition, ideological competition and a belief that the success of sports in international level gives benefit for socio-politic in the nation, starting from feeling pleased, optimistic and giving impact economically, especially in relation to organizing elite sports competitions.Keyword: achievement, elite athlete, Indonesia, national identity, sport development

Sports Coverage: “Toy Department” or Public-Service Journalism? The Relationship Between Reporters’ Ethics and Attitudes Toward the Profession

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Hardin ◽  
Bu Zhong ◽  
Erin Whiteside
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Telephone Survey ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Investigative Journalism ◽  
Steroid Use ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Sports Coverage ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

U.S. sports operations have been described as newsroom “toy departments,” at least partly because of their deviation from journalistic norms. Recently, however, more attention has focused on issues of ethics and professionalism; the failure of sports journalists to adequately cover steroid use in Major League Baseball has also directed critical attention to their roles and motives. This study, through a telephone survey of journalists in U.S. newsrooms, examines sports reporters’ practices, beliefs, and attitudes in regard to ethics and professionalism and how their ethics and practice relate. Results indicate that reporters’ attitudes toward issues such as voting in polls, taking free tickets, gambling, and becoming friends with sources are related to their views of public-service or investigative journalism. In addition, friendships with sources are linked to values stereotypically associated with sports as a toy-department occupation. These results suggest that adherence to ethical standards is linked to an outlook that embraces sports coverage as public service.

scholarly journals Sports Participation and Value of Elite Sports in Predicting Well-Being

Sports ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Alfredo Silva ◽  
Pedro Sobreiro ◽  
Diogo Monteiro
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Vigorous Physical Activity ◽  
Perceived Value ◽  
Sports Participation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Gradient Boosting ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Elite Sport ◽  
Tree Classifier ◽  
Elite Sports

This work contributes to an emerging literature focused on the role of physical activity on the subjective well-being of populations. Unlike the existing literature, it proposes an approach that uses algorithms to predict subjective well-being. The aims of this study were to determine the relative importance of sports participation and perceived value of elite sports on the subjective well-being of individuals. A total of 511 participants completed an online questionnaire. The statistical analysis used several machine learning techniques, including three algorithms, Decision Tree Classifier (DTC), Random Forest Classifier (RFC), and Gradient Boosting Classifier (GBC). In the three algorithms tested, sports participation, expressed as the weekly frequency and the time spent engaging in vigorous physical activity, showed a greater importance (between 47% and 53%) in determining subjective well-being. It also highlights the effect of perceived value of elite sport on the prediction of subjective well-being. This study provides evidence for public sport policy makers/authorities and for managers of physical activity and sport development programs. The surprising effect of the perceived value of elite sport on the prediction of subjective well-being.

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