| Abstract: |
How to ban the fraudulent use of performance-enhancing drugs is an issue in
all professional - and increasingly in amateur - sports. The main effort in
enforcing a “clean sport” has concentrated on proving an abuse of
performance-enhancing drugs and on imposing sanctions on teams and athletes.
An investigation started by Freiburg university hospital against two of its
employees who had been working as physicians for a professional cycling team
has drawn attention to another group of actors: physicians. It reveals a
multi-layered contractual relations between sports teams, physicians,
hospitals, and sports associations that provided string incentives for the two
doctors to support the use performance-enhancing drugs. This paper argues that
these misled incentives are not singular but a structural part of modern
sports caused by cross effects between the labor market for sports medicine
specialists (especially if they are researchers) and for professional athletes. |