Description

Based on extensive multi-national and multi-lingual archival research, this book examines the evolution of scientific knowledge within the international anti-doping community that coalesced during the second half of the twentieth century. Two key figures from a group of leading scientific experts serve as the focal points of the investigation, British pharmacologist Arnold Beckett and German biochemist Manfred Donike. After supporting early anti-doping initiatives in the late 1960s and 1970s, they became highly influential in such leading sports organizations as the International Olympic Committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations. From the 1980s onward, the international sport system relied heavily on their network of anti-doping laboratory experts in maintaining and advancing a rigid testing regime. Hence, this book offers a nuanced analysis of the establishment of the structures and initiatives in the global fight against doping in sport.