Background: Sports have a significant impact on people all around the world. Although sport brings a lot of joy, a sense of togetherness, and pride, it also involves ethically difficult issues such as doping. Doping in sports is a growing global concern that jeopardizes sports ethics, values, and integrity (The World Anti-Doping Agency WADA, a). Previous research has mainly approached the topic by understanding athletes’ motivation behind the decision to dope. Hence, there is a growing need to understand athletes’ attitudes and beliefs towards clean sports. Aim: This study aimed to comprehensively understand athletes’ attitudes and beliefs on reaching the top without doping and their beliefs on whether doping affects the results of competitions at the national and international levels. Also, it was examined whether variables such as age, gender, testing history, and sports have any distinguished matter on athletes’ attitudes towards clean sports. Method: A cross-sectional mixed-methods study explored athletes' attitudes and beliefs on clean sports. A total of 73 tested athletes (response rate 14,4%) completed a web-based "Assessments of Doping Control and FINCIS Activities" -survey. Results: In this research, athletes’ age, gender, testing history, and sports did not show any significance concerning athletes' attitudes towards reaching the national and international tops without doping. In the open-ended questions, athletes expressed trust in national-level competitions but had more suspicions about international competitions. Conclusion: The results suggest that the athletes in this research reported positive attitudes and beliefs in competing clean. However, it is challenging to determine whether athletes feel that they need to answer “correctly” and according to the values of clean sports. Therefore, it is important to continue studying athletes’ attitudes and clean sports.

Doping violates the Spirit of Sport and is thought to contradict the values which underpin this spirit. Values-based education (VBE) has been cited as a key element for creating a clean sport culture across age groups. Culturally relevant VBE requires understanding of the values that motivate athletes from different countries to practice their sport and uphold clean sport values. WADA's new International Standards for Education makes this study both needed and timely. Overall, 1,225 athletes from Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, and the UK responded to measures assessing their general values, Spirit of Sport values, and their perceived importance of “clean sport”. MaxDiff analysis identified the most important values to participants based on their respective country of residence. Correlation analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between importance of clean sport and Spirit of Sport values. There were significant differences between participant nationality and their perceived importance of clean sport [F(4, 1,204) = 797.060, p < 0.000], the most important general values (p < 0.05), and Spirit of Sport values (p < 0.05). Moderate positive correlations were observed between the perceived importance of clean sport and honesty and ethics (r = 0.538, p < 0.005) and respecting the rules of sport (r = 0.507, p < 0.005). When designing the values-based component of anti-doping education programs, athletes' different value-priorities across countries should be considered.

Institutional fight against doping in sport The diploma thesis with the title Institutional fight against doping in sport deals with the problematic issues of using banned substances and banned methods in sport or any other violation of anti-doping rule from the point of view of establishing international institutions with worldwide scope of activity with the aim of elimination of doping in sport. After the general introduction into the problematic issues of doping with the description of the historical roots of this unfair sporting practice there is a part focusing on the basic instruments of the fight against doping. A principle of strict liability of a sportsman for a violation of anti-doping rule is described, as well as the list of banned substances and banned methods, the process of testing, the therapeutic use exemption, the whereabouts and the athlete biological passport. In the following part the instruments of the public international law which were concluded by Council of Europe and UNESCO are analysed. The fight against doping in sport is transported through these international conventions on the level of intergovernmental cooperation which reflects the important non-governmental institutions and binds itself to international coordination. The main part of the thesis is contributed to...

Doping has serious negative consequences for athletes and the integrity of sports, implying the need for effective prevention programs. Since educating young athletes about doping-related knowledge is deemed to be not sufficiently effective to minimize doping, a focus on values, emotions and morality is seen as a promising approach and previous research indicates which variables exactly could be addressed in anti-doping efforts. These variables are anticipated guilt, empathy, moral disengagement, and collective moral norms, since these constructs have been strongly and consistently linked to doping intention, likelihood, or behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a values-based anti-doping intervention, which targets the aforementioned variables, and to evaluate its effectiveness in producing changes in outcomes in comparison to an information-based intervention and a waiting control group. To evaluate their effectiveness, both interventions, which each consist of six 45-min sessions (one session per week) were implemented in a sample of 321 young elite athletes, aged 13–19 years, from a broad range of team and individual sports. Thirty different teams, training groups or classes were randomly assigned to either the values-based intervention, the information-based intervention, or to a waiting control group. Doping intention, doping susceptibility as well as the above mentioned variables were assessed at pre- and posttest and, for participants of the values- and information-based conditions also at a 3 to 4-month follow up. Within a multilevel modeling framework general linear mixed regression analyses revealed that the values-based intervention, compared to the control group, was able to decrease athletes' moral disengagement and increase their anticipated guilt immediately after the intervention (at posttest), whereas no effects for the information-based intervention emerged. Looking at how the outcomes developed over time (i.e., at the follow up measurement), it could be demonstrated that the reduction in moral disengagement sustained. The increase in anticipated guilt, however, was not sustainable and, surprisingly, decreased from post to follow up. Furthermore, athletes in the values-based intervention reported higher empathy from post to follow up, which could possibly indicate a “delayed” effect. This study provides support that a values-based approach can produce changes in some, yet, not all addressed variables and specific elements from this intervention could potentially be a useful addition to traditional anti-doping education (i.e., information provision).