Abstract

Unquestionably sport has become a social phenomena during the last third of the XXth century. This evolution has converted sport in an open social system that interacts with other social systems. These changes have built a new sport scenario, faraway from the original one. The norms and values of amateur sport (personal overcoming, equality of opportunities, fair play…) have given way to sport show business and professionalism, where the logical of commercial productivity is imposed. Nowadays, sport is a consumer good submitted to the supply and demand: what is offered and what is the obtained reward. The article focus on the benefits of victory and the pressures suffered by the athlete, and how both factors can lead the athlete to doping.
In this context, the athlete’s body plays a main role and is submitted to competition and environment demands, as well as athlete’s own imposed demands. This environment includes economic, politic, social and cultural influences that meet up with the athlete, performing a different sport scenario, where doping acquires a new and a more complex dimension.
This is the reason why we strongly believe that besides the ethic and medical approach, the social and economic factors have to be taken into consideration when studying doping in sport.