As noted earlier, the conference theme is “Doping in sport, doping in society – lessons, themes, and connections.” The idea is to thematise how performance enhancement is more than just a matter for elite sport. Though research has often focused on doping practices in sport, recent scholarship has indicated how deeply rooted questions about doping and performance enhancement are to society as well. Perhaps doping is not just one branch of elite sport, which is just a one branch of human culture. Instead, performance enhancing-substance use and practices seems to be a connecting thread that runs throughout many of society’s branches. From fitness cultures to the desire to be “better than well”, always perform at one’s best and extend human capacities in various careers and across the lifespan. At the same time, the moral, legal, and health concerns raised by humans employing enhancements exist in society as well as elite sport.

To approach these issues, we invite not only scholars from across academia to share their insights as they assess how the imperative of performance now penetrates not only elite sport but also many other areas of life. We are proud to announce that the following experts have already accepted to give keynote addresses:

-          Professor John Hoberman, University of Texas

-          Professor Sigmund Loland, The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

-          Professor Bengt Kayser, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

-          Dr. Jason Mazanov, Editor in Chief of Performance Enhancement & Health, Australia

Commentaries

Anders Schmidt Vinther, who works with an anti-doping municipality department in Denmark, is problematizing the myth about an apparent epidemic rise in the use of anabolic androgenic steroids in and around fitness environments. He has gathered evidence from the available longitudinal prevalence studies and analysed the findings, which he presents in his commentary The steroid ”epidemic” myth.

Our French colleague Christophe Brissonneau presents some of the findings from his upcoming book Doping, Deviance, and Sports, which he has co-authored with Jeffrey Montez de Oca. In a his commentary entitled Biological preparation and hormonal rebalancing in France (1950-2016) Brissonneau presents interesting historical discoveries on how medical doctors have helped athletes prepare themselves for competition with various drugs e.g. amphetamines and anabolic steroids.

Lastly, we have a short presentation of Olivier de Hon’s PhD-thesis ‘Striking the Right Balance – Effectiveness of Anti-Doping Policies’. Olivier de Hon is scientific expert at the Anti-Doping Authority of the Netherlands and he successfully defended his thesis at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands in November 2016. Congratulations to Olivier de Hon!