A Study On The Responsibility Of Athlete Support Personnel In The Case Of Athlete Doping Violation

In the anti-doping process,the professional knowledge of the athlete support personnel is a double-edged sword.On the one hand,the support personnel can provide professional guidance for the athletes to fulfill their anti-doping obligations because they know anti-doping knowledge.On the other hand,the understanding of sports science and doping knowledge of the support personnel makes the athletes trust and rely on the support personnel in the anti-doping issue,which to some extent causes more and more support personnel to be involved in the cases of doping violations.Because of the particularity of the support personnel and the cases involved,there are some disputes in the handling of the doping violation cases involving the support personnel.The particularity of the support personnel is reflected in the identity,scope and the high dependence of the athletes on the support personnel.The particularity of doping violation cases involving the support personnel is manifested in the special relationship between the parties and the complex causes of the cases.Such cases can be divided into the cases of doping violation caused by the support personnel intentionally and the cases of doping violation caused by the support personnel negligence.Based on the above reasons,there are two controversial issues in the process of handling such cases.The second is whether there is any fault of the support personnel and how to divide the fault between the support personnel and the athlete.Nevertheless,the provisions of the world anti-doping code on the anti-doping liability of the support personnel and the general principles of law provide a reasonable and compliant explanation for the support personnel to be liable in the case of doping violation of the athletes he/she is involved in.The theory of breach of contract and the theory of performance assistant in the contract law can reasonably explain the relationship between supporting personnel and athletes,supporting personnel and anti-doping agency,and then explain why supporting personnel should bear the responsibility.At the same time,the provisions of the world anti-doping code on the liability of support personnel and the fact that support personnel in practice bear the consequences of violations in such cases also require support personnel to take responsibility for their own mistakes.However,the cases in practice clearly reflect that the support personnel have problems in responsibility identification and responsibility undertaking.Through the analysis of typical cases,such as Johaug case,Sharapova case,Sun Yang case,and so on,it is found that in practice,there are problems such as the difficulty in proving the liability of the support personnel for violation of rules,the difficulty of the support personnel to be held accountable because of their identity,and the lack of implementation and supervision of the prohibited cooperation list.To make support personnel in responsibility identification and liability problems resolved,perfect the related provisions in the rules,change the existing way of proving fault responsibility identification,build a list of banned cooperation sharing system,to strengthen the supervision of suspended support personnel,at the same time the anti-doping organization learning,and promote the successful experience of China should be done.In order to solve the problems existing in the identification and responsibility of support personnel,it is necessary to improve the provisions in the relevant rules,unify the interpretation of Articles 2.6 and 21.2.6 of the World Anti-Doping Code,and fill in the loopholes of the Article 2.10.2;at the same time change the method of fault proof in the existing responsibility determination,respectively identify and prove the faults of the athletes and support personnel,rather than split the faults of the two as a whole;the sharing of prohibition list system should also be established to strengthen supervise the banned support personnel,avoid the banned support personnel to continue to serve athletes regardless of the regulations,and increase the risk of athletes’ doping violations;finally,the Chinese anti-doping agency established a good anti-doping education access system and strictly enforced the detailed punishment provisions for support personnel in administrative regulations and rules,anti-doping organizations may learn from and promoting China’s successful experience.