Drug testing in sport: the attitudes and experiences of elite athletes.
BACKGROUND
This study aimed to investigate, among a sample of elite Australian athletes, the extent to which this group supports drug testing as a deterrent to drug use.


METHODS
Data was collected from a convenience sample of (n=974) elite Australian athletes who self-completed a questionnaire, and semi-structured telephone surveys with key experts.


RESULTS
The athletes surveyed endorsed testing for banned substances as an effective way of deterring drug use; believed that the current punishments for being caught using a banned substance was of the appropriate severity; and indicated that there should be separate policies regarding illicit drug (ID) and performance-enhancing drug (PED) use.


CONCLUSIONS
A large proportion of elite athletes in Australia endorse drug testing as an effective means of deterring drug use. They perceive a difference between being detected using a PED and an ID and believe that penalties should reflect this difference. Future research may wish to investigate attitudes towards newer methods employed to detection drug use.
Dunn
Matthew
M
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. m.dunn@unsw.edu.au
Thomas
Johanna O
JO
Swift
Wendy
W
Burns
Lucinda
L
Mattick
Richard P
RP
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology*; D013177:Sports; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection; D055815:Young Adult