ISPS-YLS Panel on Doping in Professional Cycling Features Jacob Hacker and Thomas Murray

A feeling of excitement was in the air at the Law School auditorium, as the panel, Spinning Our Wheels: Doping in Professional Cycling, cosponsored by ISPS and the Yale Law School, was about to start. After a brief video montage showing recent public episodes from the cycling world involving doping denials and confessions, the panelists took the stage.

In his opening remarks, Jacob Hacker, ISPS Director (and, it was revealed, amateur cyclist), explained the larger issues associated with the fight to stop doping in sport. This fight, he noted, involves the law, public policy, ethics, and international governing bodies – all of which are of interest to ISPS. He then laid out three questions for the panel: How did we get here, how effective is the current anti-doping regime, and where do we go from here?

Panelists included Travis Tygart, CEO, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Jonathan Vaughters, manager of the Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda Professional Cycling Team, Thomas H. Murray, Bioethicist in Residence and President Emeritus of The Hastings Center, and Floyd Landis, Former Professional Cyclist.

The panelists were thoughtful, respectful, and offered reflections on the state of the sport, the changes necessary to the system and culture, and the painful fallout for individual athletes.

Thomas Murray, currently at the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, contributed a bioethics perspective and spoke about the meaning a sports has for the people who take part in it, and how destructive is can be when that meaning is redefined. He argued that doping is a special form of cheating in sports for that reason: it creates a situation (akin to an arms race) where the only way to achieve success is via doping better than everyone else, thus changing the meaning and nature of the sport. Murray also commented that athletes’ rights to privacy and security need to be balanced against the necessary efforts to clean the sport; that the entire ecosystem (including trainers) need to be held accountable, not just the athletes themselves; and that zero-tolerance policies often backfire.

The interesting conversation was covered by Matt Seaton of the Guardian UK on his live blog, and was reported on by several media outlets as well.

The event was live-streamed, and a recording is available here.