Peculiarities of Protecting the Rights of Underage Professional Athletes in Anti-Doping Disputes

The article is devoted to the study of the legal peculiarities of protection of the rights of underage professional athletes in disputes related to violation of anti-doping rules. The relevance of the study is due to the increasing number of positive doping tests among underage professional athletes, which is a cause for concern, since, given the risk of manipulation by coaches, representatives of physical culture and sports institutions, parents and other persons, such athletes are in particular need of protection. In addition, the rules governing anti-doping organizations establish specifics relating to underage professional athletes. 

Methodologically, the article is based on the analysis of anti-doping rules, legislation and doctrinal provisions. In the course of the study, the author used the following general scientific and special methods: analysis, synthesis, comparison, formal-logical, dialectical, generalization and others. 

It was found that the translation of the World Anti-Doping Code 2021 into Ukrainian and the Anti-Doping Rules approved by the National Anti-Doping Center sometimes contain incorrect legal terminology that does not correspond to the meaning of the described concept. In view of this, an updated version of the definition of a protected person is proposed. The author found that despite the introduction of the protected person concept, which is intended to establish the specifics of protection of underage professional athletes in the course of consideration of disputes related to violation of anti-doping rules, a number of legal issues remain. These include the following. First, the need to prove no significant fault or negligence to reduce the sanction. Secondly, there may be discrimination against persons who, although they have the legal status of a child under international law, cannot use the status of a protected person. Thirdly, the involvement of third parties in the violation of anti-doping rules by underage professional athletes does not reduce the amount of responsibility that is assigned to the latter.