The role of ideology in shaping drug use regulation in Australian sport

This article examines the operation of the Australian Government's sport anti-doping policy and the way it has been executed through a detailed analysis of the Mark French case. This incident centres on an explosive drug use and drug trafficking allegation against French, a former world junior cycling champion, and a subsequent series of investigations and a court case directed at a group of elite-level cyclists. These incidents, investigations, and court-room dramas, which took place between 2003 and 2008, have been integrated into a narrative, and combined with grounded theory methodology in order to explain how ideology drives the management of drug use regulation in Australian sport.