As programme leader for the BSc (Hons) Sports Psychology programme and a Chartered Psychologist, Andrea Firth-Clark has explored the psychological reasons behind the use of performance enhancing drugs in elite sport. Here, she outlines the core of the debate and the complexities intertwined in the controversial topic…

As individuals, we tend to weigh up the pros and cons of our actions. However, even when the risks are high at times the rewards may still, in the mind of the athlete, be worth the risk.

In terms of performance enhancing drugs, it is of course an attempt to help the athlete perform much better. However, is it really cheating in the usual sense of the term? Drugs such as steroids help the athlete to work harder for longer due to allowing them to recover more quickly after training the human body would on its own. So perversely, it is those athletes who want to work more who take them. This is quite different from what we usually understand of cheats. Usually, a cheat wants to gain reward and not put in the hard work.

However, not all drug taking in sport is due to trying to enhance performance. Sha’Carri Richardson, the American 100 metre runner, was banned from the Olympics for taking cannabis. She says it was to ease the mental pain of finding out from a reporter (a stranger) that her biological mother had died. This news of course must have been quite shocking and highlights the added pressure heaped upon athletes by the media, the public and the sporting industry. Most people would not have such news broken by a reporter, then put on the spot to respond publicly. We idolise our athletes and consequently, at times, human compassion towards their human experiences outside of the sport gets overlooked. This, of course, will result in some form of trauma for the athlete.

One could argue that Sha’Carri was not taking drugs to physically enhance her performance. Conversely, cannabis does help with relaxation. It is also recognised in helping pain relief. Consequently, in a roundabout way it can also help with performance and this is actually, whether intentionally used for this purpose or not, performance enhancing.

Whatever the reason, any performance enhancing drugs are a big risk and in a vast number of cases the root cause is pressure – from personal expectations, expectations of others, the financial rewards that being a top athlete can bring, and so on. The over identification with athletic identity is also a factor; there are instances of athletes engaging in doping even when they know there is a risk to both their health and their life.

The reasons why athletes take drugs is many and varied, but for sure, this is a problem that will not, unfortunately, go away anytime soon.