by April Henning, Jörg Krieger and Paul Dimeo

As we head towards the end of 2020, we can’t ignore the challenges and upheaval of the past year. We hardly need to reiterate the effects of Covid-19 on societies around the world, as we are all living through our own versions of pandemic life. From an academic standpoint, many of us will spend many years to come sorting out the repercussions of the near complete halt of global sport this past spring and the ongoing impact of the global health crisis on all physical activities. This includes the impacts on doping behaviors and anti-doping efforts on all levels.

The questions raised by the suspension of anti-doping testing in many countries are, in some ways, extensions of the questions many of our members have been asking for many years: Is anti-doping over-reliant on testing? What are alternatives to the test-based model of anti-doping for preventing or stopping doping? Will athletes, given the opportunity to not face testing, engage in doping? What is the impact of reduced or impaired testing systems on the legitimacy of WADA and NADOs? How can the current anti-doping regulations be implemented globally under strongly contrasting circumstances and national policies?

Coming hot on the heels of the Covid-19 stoppage is the new World Anti-Doping Code, set to take effect on 1 January 2021. The updated version of the Code includes some important changes from previous Codes around substances of abuse, recreational athletes, and sanctions, to name a few. As if that wasn’t enough policy to keep us busy, the US has also introduced the Rodchenkov Act, named for the infamous Russian doping organizer turned whistleblower. The Act, much to WADA’s apparent chagrin, will allow the US to criminally prosecute doping conspirators (not individual athletes) at events involving US athletes and other stakeholders. Penalties for conviction include fines up to US $1 million and up to ten years in prison. This move by the US has been welcomed by some athletes and other stakeholders, but remains controversial. Indeed it could be read as the US government overstepping into policing global sport while ignoring doping issues closer to home as the non-WADA signatory NCAA and big four professional sports are not included. Both WADA and the IOC have already voiced concerns about the Act.

While we would normally use these developments as a jumping off point for announcing the call for abstracts and keynote speakers for our bi-annual INDR conference, at this time we are unable to do so. We have decided to postpone the INDR conference by one year, until August 2022.

We have made this decision for several reasons, the primary one being the health and safety of our members. Even with the promising news of a vaccine on the horizon, the levels of uncertainty about the ability and accessibility for travel to Aarhus next August remain high. Rather than go ahead with planning and asking members to register and book accommodation and travel that may need to be cancelled later – or moving online, which can be a great format for sharing research, but misses much of the interaction and informal socializing that makes INDR so special – we felt it was more pragmatic to simply push the conference a bit until we have more certainty we can host the conference safely. We hope you all understand our decision.

We do, however, have some good news to share. Ask Vest Christiansen, as we all know as our former INDR co-leader, has recently published the English version of his book Gym Culture, Identity and Performance-Enhancing Drugs: Tracing a Typology of Steroid Use with Routledge. Congratulations to Ask. We have also rounded up some of the most recent journal articles published by our members and other researchers exploring doping and anti-doping in the Journal Watch section of this newsletter. If we have missed out on some of your work, please send it along and we’ll be happy to publish it in the next version of the newsletter. Additionally, we have an overview of INDR’s ongoing Perspectives on Doping and Anti-Doping project.

We hope everyone has a good end of 2020 and we hope 2021 is a better year for all!