Sarah Teetzel

Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management University of Manitoba

  • Winnipeg MB

Dr. Sarah Teetzel’s research focuses on applied ethical issues in sport with emphasis on the intersection of rules and values.

Contact

Biography

Sarah Teetzel is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at University of Manitoba. A graduate of the doctoral program at the University of Western Ontario’s International Centre for Olympic Studies (2009), her PhD dissertation was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin prize (named after the founder of the modern Olympics) from the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee for best dissertation in the field of Olympic studies. Her research has since focused on applied ethical issues in sport, and has been funded by SSHRC-Sport Canada, the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Studies Centre, and the World Anti-Doping Agency. Sarah’s main areas of expertise include the Olympics, doping and drug testing in sport, and gender issues in sport, and she has published over 80 articles on these topics in scholarly journals, books, newspapers, and reports.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning
Health and Wellness
Leisure / Recreation
Research

Areas of Expertise

Gender in sport
Doping and drug testing in sport
Olympic studies
Philosophy and ethics of sport

Accomplishments

Pierre de Coubertin Dissertation Prize

2013

Awarded by the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee

Education

The University of Western Ontario

Ph.D.

Kinesiology

2009

The University of Western Ontario

M.A.

Kinesiology - Sport Ethics

2004

The University of Western Ontario

B.Sc.

Kinesiology

2002

Affiliations

  • International Olympic Academy
  • Health Leisure and Human Performance Research Institute

Media Appearances

Weeding out the truth

Winnipeg Free Press  online

2016-02-08

Sarah Teetzel, a kinesiology professor at the University of Manitoba, says it’s possible that people such as Martin can find greater focus when using marijuana.

The problem, says Teetzel, is that research just isn’t available to answer the many questions about marijuana’s pros and cons.

"It’s hard to do research on any performance-enhancing drug because of the difficulty in obtaining research ethical approval to conduct studies of this nature,’ she says. "A university’s research ethics board is unlikely to permit researchers to give athletes illegal drugs in order to study their physiological reactions...

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Ex-Associate of Pharmacists in Al Jazeera Report Assists Doping Inquiry

The New York Times  online

2016-01-29

WADA, though, has focused its efforts primarily on educating athletes, coaches, doctors and trainers, not naturopaths, according to Sarah Teetzel, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Manitoba. This has provided an avenue for those distributing banned substances to reach athletes, she said.

“Naturopaths haven’t really been part of the conversation of doping development,” she said. “A team doctor knows if they are found to have supplied an athlete, there are consequences. Traditionally, naturopaths haven’t been part of it.”...

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Calls for action in Russian doping scandal

CTV News  tv

2015-11-10

University of Manitoba professor and sports ethics expert weighs in on a doping report that may be costly for Russian athletes..

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Articles

Drug testing, sex verification and the 1967 Pan-American Games

International Journal of the History of Sport

2016-09-09

Despite frequent claims that invasive methods of sex verification and early procedures for doping detection were used in 1966 and 1967 at different major international sport competitions, little is known about the origins and rationales for implementing such procedures. This paper focuses on the drug testing and sex verification protocols implemented at the 1967 Pan-American Games held in Winnipeg. Specifically, it explores the conditions that led to these protocols, as well as the details of and the arguments invoked for their implementation. To do so, archival material, media coverage featured in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish newspapers and magazines across the Americas, and oral histories are analyzed and discussed. The paper demonstrates that neither the sex verification nor the drug testing protocol was mandatory for all athletes and only two very specific groups of athletes were targeted. It also demonstrates that in the case of the former, exceptions were made within the specific group targeted. The paper concludes that the rudimentary protocols applied at the 1967 Pan-American Games likely informed the IOC Medical Commission’s doping and sex-testing policies implemented at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and Grenoble Winter Olympics.

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The onus of inclusion: Sport policies and the enforcement of the women’s category in spor

Journal of the Philosophy of Sport

2015-09-14

With recent controversies surrounding the eligibility of athletes with disorders of sex development (DSD) and hyperandrogenism, as well as continued discussion of the conditions transgender athletes must meet to compete in high-performance sport, a wide array of scholars representing a diverse range of disciplines have weighed in on both the appropriateness of classifying athletes into the female and male categories and the best practices of doing so. In response to cases of high-profile athletes’ sex (and gender) being called into question, the International Olympic Committee, the International Association of Athletics Federations, and the National Collegiate Athletics Association, among others, published or updated policies addressing who is eligible to compete in the women’s sport category and under what conditions. This paper addresses the areas in which philosophical reasoning and ethical analysis can contribute to reopened debates about the surveillance of the women’s category in sport. Emphasis is placed on determining where the onus of responsibility should fall for ensuring the new policies are followed.

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No Net Gain: A critique of media representations of women's Olympic beach volleyball

Feminist Media Studies

2012

Representations of women athletes have always been complicated and often controversial (Paul Davis 2010), but perhaps none more so than in the case of beach volleyball. Current media representations of beach volleyball confine the players to established gender roles ...

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