Unexplored Life Stories of Elite Athletes With Antidoping Rule Violations: Exploitation and Abuse, (Continuing) Discovery, and (In)Justice Narratives.

The aim of the current study was to move beyond the publicly recognized performance narrative and construct additional narrative types derived from the life stories of elite athletes sanctioned for antidoping rule violations (ADRVs). Specifically, the current study addressed three research questions: (a) How are the life history stories of athletes with ADRVs told? (b) What is the content of these life history stories? and (c) How do they differ across athletes with ADRVs? Using a narrative inquiry approach, six life history interviews with elite athletes who received an ADRV were selected to represent a larger data set (n = 35). A "story analyst" position was adopted, and the results illustrated three narrative types: exploitation and abuse, (continuing) discovery, and (in)justice narratives. Taken together, these narrative types challenge dominant discourses of deterrence and exclusion, highlight the limitations of current antidoping frameworks, and call for more compassionate results management, including proportionate punishment.