POLICY BRIEF article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Anti-doping Sciences & Integrity in Sport
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1619707
This article is part of the Research TopicInsights in Sports Politics, Policy and LawView all 7 articles
The USADA's supposed orthodox approach to anti -doping: a power strategy and a threat to trust.
Provisionally accepted
- Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This article analyses the roots of the significant tensions between USADA and WADA over the revelations that 23 Chinese swimmers were found to have a banned substance in 2021. USADA described the revelation as a scandal and criticised WADA for a lax policy that failed to fulfil its role. USADA's position, which can be described as ultra-orthodox, is seen as an attempt to control the "doxa" of sport and thus gain power within the Olympic movement. This vehement demand for a change in WADA policy can be seen as one of the expressions of the imperialist stance of the United States, which favours power relations over deliberation and multilateralism and risks undermining confidence in anti-doping.
Keywords: doxa, field, Sociology, power, Anti-doping, Trust, Sport
Received: 28 Apr 2025; Accepted: 24 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ohl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fabien Ohl, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.