Doping in Sport Symposium
April 27, 2017 | By Alexa Brown — Pepperdine Law partnered with the Foundation for
Global Sports Development and Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, to present a
symposium on "Doping in Sport: How the culture might change." More than 100 guests
attended, with multiple media outlets represented at the event. Opening remarks were
made 
by Professor Maureen Weston and Dr. Steven Ungerleider of the Foundation for Global
Sports Development.
Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee, delivered the first keynote presentation titled "Perspectives on Rio 2016."
Craven commented that, "in order to protect the integrity of sport for future generations, sports have to get back to the basics." When posed the question, "what has changed?" Craven explained that committees are getting better at detecting banned substances and there is more coverage in the media. The issue of doping remains because the financial rewards are exponential, leading athletes to pick "profits over principles; medals over merits." The Q&A section of the presentation included a discussion on how occasionally the "system" cheats the athletes, rather than the other way around, how influencers can be held accountable, and the pros and cons of criminalizing doping.
Rebecca Ruiz, an investigative reporter at the New York Times, spoke about "Investigating Russian Doping." She discussed how information on recent Russian doping scandals developed.
The first panel of the symposium, "Rio 2016: Point/Counterpoint," was moderated by
T.J. Quinn, investigative reporter for ESPN. The panelists included: Howard L. Jacobs,
Sports Attorney; William Bock II, General Counsel, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA);
Michael Lenard, V.P., International Court of Arbitration for 
Sport (ICAS); and Dr. Steven Ungerlerider, Sports Psychologist and Author.
The second panel of the day was also moderated by T.J. Quinn, and was titled "Finding Answers." Panelists included: Kathleen Wallace (Pepperdine LLM '05 ), Athlete Ombudsman, U.S. Olympic Committee; Maurice Su, Gibson Dunn; Don Fehr, Executive Director, National Hockey League; Dan Halem, Chief Legal Officer, Major League Baseball; Kelly C Crabb, Sheppard Mullin, Adjunct Professor at USC Law; and Jeffery Benz, CAS/JAMS Arbitrator.
The closing remarks of the symposium were delivered by David Ulich, Sheppard Mullin, Foundation for Global Sports Development.
Photos courtesy of Cecily Breeding.