By John Gleaves & Ask Vest Christiansen

A new host of names and another set of shocking revelations cannot help but remind us how much the secret world of illicit performance enhancement garners headlines and captures audiences. It seems that some things never change. However, the threats that Russian athletics athletes may be staying home from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and with a similar case building for athletes in other countries, such as Kenya and Ethiopia, where systematic flouting of doping regulations has brought outside scrutiny, the World Anti-Doping Agency seems to be employing a new strategy in its War on Doping.

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Sigmund Loland, Professor, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (Norges idrettshøgskole) and Visiting Professor, University of Southern California, 2014-2016

In the general public and the mass media, a primary concern with the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PED) seems to be on cheating and unfair advantages. Clearly, breaking rules to get an exclusive advantage is unfair. Yet the fairness argument does not entail whether use of PED should be banned or not. We cannot justify a ban merely by reference to the wrongness of rule breaking.

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Dominic Sagoe, PhD, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Norway

An important dimension of illicit anabolic-androgenic steroid [steroid(s)] use is polydrug use or polypharmacy: the simultaneous use of steroids and other licit and illicit drugs or substances. “Stacking”, the combined use of different types of steroids, is connected to polypharmacy. It is important to note the illicit market availability of ‘pre-stacked’ steroids: concoctions of various types of steroids.

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