Purity, dirt and danger: symbolic dimensions of anti-doping in elite sports

This article critically explores elite athletes’ accounts on anti-doping policy and practice and how ideas of purity, dirt and danger shape their experiences and actions within it. Theoretically, we draw from Mary Douglas’ influential ideas on purity and danger. These ideas encompass the idea that separating dirtiness from cleanness provides a way to systematically create and maintain symbolic, societal and cultural order. A secondary analysis of data from 13 qualitative interviews with elite athletes in three different sports dispersed over five geographical continents shows a strict conviction of the importance of distinguishing the pure from the impure. The analysis played out as practices and experiences of assurance, regulation and shaming. Athletes respond to the perceived danger of crossing purity boundaries by enacting precise measures to avoid ‘pollution’, positioning their own bodies as sites for constructing and defending these boundaries. This article contributes important insights for policymakers by demonstrating how anti-doping practices may reinforce moral hierarchies that stigmatise certain athletes. We argue that understanding the symbolic dimensions of purity in anti-doping efforts is essential for developing fairer, more inclusive sport governance.