Media contact

Wendy Frew
UNSW Media Office
9385 2481
w.frew@unsw.edu.au

With the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics only hours away, UNSW experts are available for comment on issues from doping in sport and Zika to two-way trade and the economics of the Rio spectacle.

DOPING IN SPORT

Dr Jason Mazanov – School of Business, UNSW Canberra

Sport and exercise psychology, Sport and leisure management, ethical use of new technology, substance abuse and organised sport

T. +61 (2) 6268 8071; E. j.mazanov@adfa.edu.au

Dr Mazanov is a recognised international expert on the management of drugs in sport and the anti-doping policy. With over 10 years of experience researching in this field, Dr Mazanov has developed a keen interest in the role of performance enhancement broadly, including the intended and unintended consequences of technology designed to enhance the human condition, from gadgets to management systems.

Associate Professor Deborah Healey – UNSW Law

Sport and law including governance, sponsorship, broadcasting and anti-doping

T. +61 (2) 9385 2226; M. +61 402 097 887; E. d.healey@unsw.edu.au

Associate Professor Healey’s research on sport and law focuses particularly in areas of governance in sport, sponsorship and anti-doping. She is editor of the Australia and New Zealand Sport Law Journal. She has considerable experience as a sports tribunal chair and member, and has appeared before various tribunals including the Court of Arbitration for Sport. She has been a board member for significant state and national sporting organisations. Her book Doping in Sport and Law (edited with Ulrich Haas) will be published in August.

Dr James Connor – School of Business, UNSW Canberra

Elite athletes, sports marketing

T. +61 (2) 6268 8799; M. +61 413 993 816; E. james.connor@adfa.edu.au

Dr Connor has published on sport marketing and scandals, drug use, policy and sport development. In his book in The Athlete as Widget: How exploitation explains elite sport, he argues that elite sport tends to use the majority of athletes like factory fodder. His current work on why athletes dope and the fairness / legitimacy of the anti-doping system is funded via the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and investigates the Goldman dilemma (asking elite athletes whether they would take a drug that would guarantee them overwhelming success in sport but cause them to die after five years). He also is continuing to investigate scandal in the rugby league and the “spirit” of Olympic sport.

ZIKA VIRUS

Professor Raina MacIntyre – School of Public Health and Community Medicine

Infectious disease epidemiology, Emerging infectious diseases

T. +61 (2) 9385 3811; M. +61 410651612; E. r.macintyre@unsw.edu.au

Raina is Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at UNSW and the Director of the National Health and Medical Research Centre of Research Excellence for Integrated Systems for Epidemic Response (ISER). Her research focuses on emerging infectious diseases, vaccines, influenza, adult vaccination, epidemiology, pandemics, travel and border control.

Professor Bill Rawlinson – School of Medical Science

Virology and molecular biology

T. +61 (2) 9382 9113; E. w.rawlinson@unsw.edu.au

Professor Rawlinson is one of NSW’s most senior virologists. He can explain the Zika virus and the concerns it raises for pregnant women.  http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/what-zika-virus

THE ECONOMICS OF THE RIO OLYMPICS

Tim Harcourt  – UNSW Business School

Trade, investment and tourism between Australia and Brazil, the economics of the Rio games

T. +61 (2) 9385 3816; M. +61 408 485 479; E. tim.harcourt@unsw.edu.au

Tim Harcourt is the J.W.Nevile Fellow in Economics at UNSW’s Business School. He is known as ‘The Airport Economist’ and is the author of seven books on the international economy including: The Airport Economist, Trading Places, Great Southern Lands – building ties between Australia & Brazil and Latin Lessons. He is currently writing a history on the internationalisation of the Australian economy and a new book titled Footynomics on the economics of sport.​