Competing Visions of the Athlete in Sports Governance: A Narrative Review of Lex Sportiva and Human Rights Scholarship

Abstract

International sport operates under a private legal order of rules and institutions such as the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the World Anti-Doping Code. Scholarship on the legal position of the athlete within this order reaches different conclusions about the same institutions, as cases such as Semenya and Pechstein show. Existing overviews of the field are organised by institution or by topic rather than by the reasons for this divergence. The present review identifies the research traditions that have shaped scholarship on the athlete, examines why they conflict and assesses the representation of the athlete from developing countries. A meta-narrative approach was followed, and documents published in English between 2001 and 2025 were selected purposively from HeinOnline, JSTOR, SSRN, SpringerLink, Taylor and Francis Online and Oxford Academic together with primary instruments and official reports. Five traditions were identified, which treat the athlete as a member of a self-governing order, a weaker contracting party, a holder of rights, a worker owed a duty of care and the subject of a global regulatory regime. They diverge over consent to arbitration, eligibility rules, strict liability in antidoping and harmonisation across states. The differences reflect underlying premises, and common ground may lie in procedural guarantees such as independent tribunals and fair hearings. Future research should draw on the experience of athletes, including those from developing countries, and on decisions taken at first instance.