Oxford Brookes University has highlighted issues of corruption and doping in a series of articles ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Dr Rocco Porreca, senior lecturer in marketing at Oxford Brookes Business School, has researched why sports stars engage in corrupt behaviour in sports.
Dr Porreca said: “Sport corruption encompasses many forms which can include match fixing, doping, salary cap abuses, ‘scalping’ - re-selling tickets at a much higher price -, ‘tanking’, which is when an athlete deliberately puts in less effort while competing, which can be linked to bets placed on results within a sporting contest.”
He highlighted that the number of confirmed doping cases has decreased recently, with four at the 2018 winter Games and nine at the 2020 summer Olympics.
On why sports people engage in corruption, he said: "Simply, athletes engage in corrupt behaviour because there is an opportunity to do so.
“Our research placed the reasons for engaging in corruption into three distinct categories: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control.
“We also found that athletes largely participated in corruption due to a desire to improve their financial situation, in particular those that compete in sports with smaller cash prizes."
According to Dr Porreca's research, athletes participate in corruption as a means of recovering from injury, improving health or extending their career.
He further explained the risks involved with performance-enhancing drugs, including damage to an athlete's public image, finances, and even life-threatening health issues.
Dr Porreca cited cases like severe headaches, loss of vision, and heart failure as potential consequences of drug misuse.
Discussing a proposed alternative event, the Enhanced Games, Dr Porreca said: “The Enhanced Games are a proposed set of sport competitions in which athletes who participate will not be subjected to doping testing.
“The event’s founder, Dr Aron Ping D’Souza, says he aims to produce the safest sporting events in the world, while ensuring all participating athletes are paid fairly.
“The biggest difference here is the lack of anti-doping control and the encouragement for athletes to try and break world records through the use of performance enhancing measures."
However, he questioned potential sponsorship from sports companies for athletes 'enhancing their performance through the use of banned substances'.
Considering World Athletics' plan to award prize money to gold medallists for the first time, Dr Porreca said: "Our research has found that financial incentive is a reason for athletes engaging in corrupt behaviour, so theoretically if there is more money to be won then athletes may consider doping, for example, to try and achieve this. "
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