Ivan Waddington

Tracing the history of sports medicine from the ancient world through to the present day, this book shines new light on the embedded relationship between physicians, performance enhancement and doping in elite sport. Combining historical and sociological analysis, the book shows how sports medicine, as it developed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, became increasingly disengaged from its origins in preventive medicine to become closely linked with elite level competitive sport. The book demonstrates how this link between sports medicine and elite competitive sport drew sports physicians into the search for enhanced performance so that by the second half of the twentieth century performance enhancement had become an essential raison d’être of sports medicine practitioners. It examines how this search for enhanced performance has often led sports physicians to play a prominent role in the development and provision of performance-enhancing drugs, and looks in depth at the case study of France and professional cycling, scene of some of the most high-profile and consequential doping cases of all time. This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport history, the history of medicine, medical ethics, the ethics of sport, sport and society, or science and society.

Why do many athletes risk their careers by taking performance-enhancing drugs? Do the highly competitive pressures of elite sports teach athletes to win at any cost? An Introduction to Drugs in Sport provides a detailed and systematic examination of drug use in sport and attempts to explain why athletes have, over the last four decades, increasingly used performance-enhancing drugs. It offers a critical overview of the major theories of drug use in sport, and provides a detailed analysis of the involvement of sports physicians in the development and use of performance-enhancing drugs. Focusing on drug use within elite sport, the book offers an in-depth examination of important contemporary themes and issues, including:the history of drugs in sport and changing patterns of usefair play, cheating and the ‘spirit of sport’WADA and the future of anti-doping policydrug use in professional football and cyclingsociological enquiry and the problems of researching drugs in sport. Designed to help students explore and understand this problematic area of research in sport studies, and richly illustrated throughout with case studies and empirical data, An Introduction to Drugs in Sport is an invaluable addition to the literature. It is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the relationship between drugs, sport and society.

Why do many athletes risk their careers by taking performance-enhancing drugs? Do the highly competitive pressures of elite sports teach athletes to win at any cost? An Introduction to Drugs in Sport provides a detailed and systematic examination of drug use in sport and attempts to explain why athletes have, over the last four decades, increasingly used performance-enhancing drugs. It offers a critical overview of the major theories of drug use in sport, and provides a detailed analysis of the involvement of sports physicians in the development and use of performance-enhancing drugs. Focusing on drug use within elite sport, the book offers an in-depth examination of important contemporary themes and issues, including:the history of drugs in sport and changing patterns of usefair play, cheating and the ‘spirit of sport’WADA and the future of anti-doping policydrug use in professional football and cyclingsociological enquiry and the problems of researching drugs in sport. Designed to help students explore and understand this problematic area of research in sport studies, and richly illustrated throughout with case studies and empirical data, An Introduction to Drugs in Sport is an invaluable addition to the literature. It is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the relationship between drugs, sport and society.