Doping in Cycling: Realism, Antirealism and Ethical Deliberation
Author
Jones, Carwyn
Date
2010Type
Article
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN
0094-8705
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Professional road cycling in general and the Tour de France in particular have a tarnished
reputation as far as the illegal and illegitimate use of performance enhancing
drugs is concerned. Numerous positive dope tests each year are, for some, testament
to the insidious corruptness of cyclists, their entourage, and the practice community.
For others, it attests to both the strength of the commitment to drug free sport and the
rigor of the processes implemented to achieve it. In a recent interview on British TV,
Mark Cavendish a winner of 6 Tour de France stages in 2009, claimed that no other
sport was as committed to clean competition as road cycling1. Although standard
antidoping arguments have been presented, discussed, and widely rehearsed in the
literature, consensus on the matter has not been reached neither in the community of
sports ethicists nor, as I will suggest, in the practice community of elite road cyclists.
In this paper I explore a possible defense of doping in elite cycling which requires us
to think carefully about common assumptions about both the nature and purpose of
doping. In particular I examine the way in which both realists and antirealists might
deal with a particular prodoping argument.
Journal/conference proceeding
Journal of the Philosophy of Sport;
Citation
Jones, C. (2010) 'Doping in cycling: realism, antirealism and ethical deliberation', Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 37(1), pp.88-101
Collections
- Sport Research Groups [1088]