Motivations

The question of what makes an athlete cheat can be answered very simply; to win. However, there is almost always a deeper meaning behind an athlete deciding to indulge in performance enhancing drugs. Whether it's for money, fame and glory; to appease the pressures from external factors; or to be the best in the world; the multitude of elements contributing to an athlete feeling the need to cheat is staggering and in many ways sad.

There has been very little research into how these factors affect young athletes and what factors are most decisive on their attitudes towards doping. University of Kent PHD student Daniel Madigan wrote a research paper examining the different views of 129 athletes with an average age of 17 years. The study measured how perfectionism is related to the idea that performance enhancement is necessary to be competitive or socially acceptable as everyone does it, a preemptive idea that can predict the intention to dope.

Here are some of his findings.

As you can see, parental pressure was the most influential factor in young athletes' attitutes towards doping, with an athlete's perfectionistic concerns over fear of failure also having a positive effect on their views. On the other hand, the pressure from a coach and an athlete's self oriented strive for perfection were deemed to have a negative effect, turning them away from the idea of doping.

The paper was co-written by Joachim Stoeber, head of psychology at the University of Kent, and Louis Passfield, head of sport science at the University of Kent. Louis predicted parental pressure to have a big impact but expected "coach pressure would be the primary factor". He added: "I suspect that our desire to be perfect is driven a little by our biology and strongly influenced by important people around us; parents, coaches, family, friends, team mates. I don’t think it’s as simple as personality, but susceptibility to doping is likely to be influenced by this. Also, the reasons that motivate an athlete to dope have to be in place such as pressure of expectations, earning an income, or lucrative prizes or contracts and a desire to succeed.

Tom, Robbie and Seb explain what motivates a young athlete to start thinking about doping.

Seb and Amber's coach Steve King is completely against sports nutrition as he insists that at a young age, all that is needed for a young athlete is a good diet and to be a year older. Steve has worked with Seb since he was 15 and has moulded him into the elite athlete he is today. He took Amber on in 2014 and has continued her progression into one of the top young prospects in England. Coaches are hugely influential to their athletes with frequent close contact. Steve explains what he expects from his athletes and why he is so against taking shortcuts.

A huge motivation for young athletes to start thining about doping is when the people they look up to get caught cheating. Whilst athletics has not seen as many huge stars exposed doping in comparison to cycling during the EPO era, the effect could be devastating on the next generation if one of the current big stars were busted like Lance Armstrong was.

Armstrong opitomised cycling during the turn of the millenium and the idea that you had to enhance your performance synthetically to stand a chance of making itwas widespread throughout it's participants. For young cyclists, this would have crushed their dreams of being like their hero and would introduce the question of whether or not clean sport is a viable way to succeed.

Track and field has seen stars like Ben Johnson, Dwayne Chambers and Marion Jones all banned for doping but has not seen someone in the same calibre of Armstrong get done. A Mo Farah, a Usain Bolt, a Jess Ennis; would completely destroy the hopes and dreams of a young generation. Athletes like Justin Gatlin have been banned on two seperate occasions yet were still allowed to compete at Rio 2016. What sort of message does this send to young athletes that cheats are still allowed to participate in clean sport?

Tom, Seb and Robbie speak about who they looked up to as young athletes and the effects of these doping scandals on their development.

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