The International Cycling Union under Siege - anti-doping and the biological passport as a Mission Impossible?

TY - JOUR

T1 - The International Cycling Union under Siege - anti-doping and the biological passport as a Mission Impossible?

AU - Wagner, Ulrik

N1 - CURIS 2010 5200 102

PY - 2010/6

Y1 - 2010/6

N2 - This article examines the anti-doping efforts undertaken since 1998 by the International Cycling Union (UCI). It does so by outlining the complex network of interdependencies in which the UCI is embedded, by analysing the potentials and constraints for exercising power and by using neo-institutional categorizations to define the change in its organizational responses to anti-doping institutionalization. The paper concludes that the UCI is an organization under siege because it is the target of multiple demands, which constrain its ability to exercise power. During the last ten years the UCI has shifted from a compromise strategy to a manipulation strategy by trying to become an anti-doping entrepreneur, for instance by introducing the Biological Passport. Implementing new measures on doping might result in additional positive tests, thus reinforcing the perception of professional cycling as a doping-infected sport. Therefore, UCI anti-doping efforts can be termed a temporary Mission Impossible.

AB - This article examines the anti-doping efforts undertaken since 1998 by the International Cycling Union (UCI). It does so by outlining the complex network of interdependencies in which the UCI is embedded, by analysing the potentials and constraints for exercising power and by using neo-institutional categorizations to define the change in its organizational responses to anti-doping institutionalization. The paper concludes that the UCI is an organization under siege because it is the target of multiple demands, which constrain its ability to exercise power. During the last ten years the UCI has shifted from a compromise strategy to a manipulation strategy by trying to become an anti-doping entrepreneur, for instance by introducing the Biological Passport. Implementing new measures on doping might result in additional positive tests, thus reinforcing the perception of professional cycling as a doping-infected sport. Therefore, UCI anti-doping efforts can be termed a temporary Mission Impossible.

U2 - 10.1080/16184741003770206

DO - 10.1080/16184741003770206

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1618-4742

VL - 10

SP - 321

EP - 342

JO - European Sport Management Quarterly

JF - European Sport Management Quarterly

IS - 3

ER -