Would The Threat Of Imprisonment Prevent Doping In UK Sport?

Doping in sport has again featured heavily in the news this year: Christian Coleman (current fastest man in the world) was cleared to race after a missed tests charge was dropped; the decision to hold Chinese swimmer Sun Yang's anti-doping violations at a public hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport ("CAS"); Dillian Whyte was subjected to a provisional suspension by the World Boxing Council over an alleged failed drugs test, and athletics coach Alberto Salazar received a fouryear ban for doping violations.

'Doping in sport' is not a criminal offence in the UK. However, renewed pressure has been put on Parliament to act. In March 2019 Travis Tygart, the head of the US Anti-Doping Agency, who was heavily involved in the Lance Armstrong doping case, urged the UK to shadow the US' introduction of legislation criminalising the assistance of coaches and medical professionals to athletes who commit doping violations. Tygart said that US law did not focus on the athletes, but rather those who 'aided and abetted' doping.

China, another big sporting power, has also sought to tackle doping in advance of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Chinese athletes who are found to use performance enhancing drugs ("PED") will now receive criminal punishments, including sentences of imprisonment. Meanwhile, other nations including Germany, France and Italy have brought in criminal penalties for sports doping. In 2017, Russia also passed legislation making it a crime to assist or coerce doping in sport.

WADA and UKAD

The UK's approach to anti-doping in sport can be traced back to 1987 and the report on the Misuse of Drugs in Sport, by Lord Sebastian Coe and Lord Colin Moynihan, the latter having called for doping in sport to be made a criminal offence.

The World Anti-Doping Agency ("WADA") was founded in 1999, with the mission to 'lead a collaborative worldwide movement for dopingfree sport'. The agency was created following the doping revelations concerning the Tour de France in 1998 that rocked cycling.

In December 2009, UK Anti-Doping ("UKAD") was established as an independent National Anti-Doping Organisation, collecting intelligence and testing elite athletes in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code ('the Code"). Under the Code, there is a uniformity of sanctions issued worldwide ranging from a formal warning/reprimand with no prohibitions, to a ban for life. UKAD's position in 2009 was that there should be no criminalisation of athletes...