Drugs,Sport, Anxiety and Foucauldian Governmentality

This paper1 1. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual conference of the Australian Sociological Association at the University of Tasmania from 5 to 8 December 2005. uses concepts of anxiety and Foucauldian governmentality to investigate the ways that the discourses supporting the ban on performance-enhancing drugs in sport have been manipulated and broadened to treat this issue as a public policy and health issue rather than an example of rule violation in sport. Some effects of this expansion include the broadening of drug testing to include testing for recreational drugs, the intrusion of both central governments and scientific experts into the issue and the curtailment of civil liberties for athletes. A further effect has been the perpetration of injustices against athletes under the guise of such injustices being necessary to maintain the integrity of sport.