Doping : Caught between the Desire for Glory and Social Constraints. The (Particular ?) Case of Young High-Performance French Athletes

We are reminded every day of the ubiquitous presence of doping in high-level sports, but no one seems to care or even to notice the number of "ordinary" athletes who also take drugs. High-level sport glorifies the winners, who sometimes become hypermediatized stars. It is even possible that the athlete will prefer "the danger of actual death, through taking drugs, to symbolic death, i.e. defeat." (Jeu, 1987). The question we are asking is whether doping, whatever its form, whatever the nature of the products used, is part of a deviant subculture. We will try to answer this question by analyzing the athlete's desire for glory and the social constraints that intervene, and by attempting to understand the social processes that lead an athlete to consume prohibited substances.