Title: ''We are not sportsmen, we are professionals'': professionalism, doping and deviance in elite sport

Authors: Ask Vest Christiansen

Addresses: Department of Sport Science, Aarhus University, Dalgas Avenue 4 DK-8000 Arhus C., Denmark

Abstract: As a part of its legacy of being the first genuine modern sport, cycling has a proactive attitude to pharmacological developments. This attitude, however, is in conflict with the norms and values of both the wider society in general and the International Olympic Committee|s (IOC) historical emphasis on the amateur ideal in particular. As such, riders who use banned substances are considered deviants or pariahs. Using Danish elite cycling as a case study, the paper will explore how these contradictory norms are reflected in today|s professional and amateur riders| attitudes to doping. The paper concludes by illustrating how the entrepreneurial attitudes of the athletes have developed in different directions: While amateurs came to regard the professionals| attitude to sports as normative, the professionals had to submit to the norms of the amateurs in order to be allowed to compete in important competitions.

Keywords: elite sport; cycling; doping; modernity; amateurism; professionalism; deviance; moral entrepreneurship; Olympics; banned substances; Denmark.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2010.029714

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2010 Vol.7 No.1/2, pp.91 - 103

Published online: 01 Dec 2009 *

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