Essay on PEDs

pprendeville

Recently had to do an essay for college on Motivation and chose to do it on why cyclists do performance enhancing drugs. Don't think I'll ever be a journalist but said I'd throw it up here for the craic. Also, some of the views I expressed are space fillers (Sky's doping policy being the way forward for example allowed me to finish up quickly but I'm not sure I agree with it. Also I think LA is a lovely person and as fair as you could meet ).


Motivation – The Reasoning behind using Performance Enhancing Drugs


Introduction:
This essay will look at the reasoning behind the decision to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in the sport of professional cycling, specifically among male road cyclists. It will briefly introduce some motivation theories in analysing rider’s decisions to use PEDs with a focus on the recent case involving Lance Armstrong and The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

In the past number of years there has been an upsurge in competitive road cycling worldwide. It is not too long ago since two Irish cyclists, Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche, were dominating the world scene. The recent prolific rise and fall of Lance Armstrong and the emergence of this year’s Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins have brought the sport in the public domain more than ever before. However there is a dark side to the sport which has come to light recently, that of the doping culture within cycling.

Why do some riders resort to using PEDs while others choose to remain clean? According to Jonathan Vaughters (bicycling.com, 2012), the current manager of the Garmin Sharp Pro Tour team, an athlete can only reach “98% of his dream through natural talent, doping can be the last 2%”. Luthans (1992) defines motivation as a “combination of needs, drives and incentives….a process that starts with a physiological or psychological deficiency”. (Pettinger, 2002, p. 518) Looking at Vaughters comments, it seems that he saw himself as inferior to other athletes and as a result of this deficiency he felt it necessary to take PEDs to bring him to the next level. This begs the question if cyclists were not to dope would the psychological deficiency alone lead to underperformance? Knowing that others will probably perform better than you because they are pepped up could lead to a feeling of low self-esteem and not even performing to that 98% level in the first place.

Mullins (1999) explores the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation - that of being motivated by psychological rewards (e.g. sense of achievement) and tangible rewards (e.g. financial gain). (Pettinger, 2002, p. 518) Lance Armstrong is a good candidate to examine here. A seven time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor, he is a very motivated man both on and off the bike. The sacrifices required to win seven Tours, to come out of retirement and compete again and setting up a charity that has grown to be one of the most well-known charities worldwide, all appear to be intrinsic qualities given that he is financially very secure. The recent USADA report, in which 26 witnesses testified against Armstrong paint a very dark picture of the man’s character. Upon inspection of this report, it appears his career revolved around doping. LaChausse (2012, p. 310) states that “competitive road cyclists often compete on sponsored teams, working together to assist one cyclist to the finish line”. The testimonies in The USADA report (cyclinginvestigation.usada.org, 2012), point to Armstrong being a very controlling person both within and outside his team in the fact that if his team mates did not agree to dope then they would be kicked off the team (http://d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net, 2012). It was a case of one for all and all for one and as such McGregor’s Theory X comes into play in that these riders were bullied into doing something for fear that their careers would be ended before they even started. The trappings of Armstrong’s success were perhaps a very strong factor in his decision to dope and to continue the regime for 10 years. Without it, he perhaps perceived he would not be competitive.

Conclusion:
There is some light at the end of the tunnel. This year Bradley Wiggins proved to the world that The Tour can be won without the need to use PEDs. Team Sky operates according to Theory Y principles in that their team management has spelled out their commitment to stamping out doping. They operate a zero tolerance policy and have recently taken measures to terminate contracts of riders who have previously doped. This has given their riders the freedom to enjoy their work in the knowledge that they will not be faced with the question of “will I” or “won’t I” regarding doping during their careers. Should the sport wish to move forward, the organisation of cycling as a whole could well look at Team Sky and use them as an example of how to move forward.


References
LaChausse, Robert G. Motives of Competitive and Non-Competitive Cyclists. Journal of Sports Behaviour, Vol. 29, No. 4. Retrieved November 11, 2012 from http://content.ebscohost.com/pdf18_21/pdf/2006/SRB/01Dec06/23083747.pdf
Luthans, F. (1992) Organisational Behaviour, McGraw Hill. In Pettinger, R. (2002). Introduction to Management (3rd ed.).: NY: Palgrave.
USADA U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team Investigation. Retrieved November 13, 2012 from http://cyclinginvestigation.usada.org/
USADA U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team Investigation. Retrieved November 13, 2012 from http://d3epuodzu3wuis.cloudfront.net/FA+Exhibit+J+2005-07-26+Vaughters+-+Andreu+IM+Exchange.pdf
Vaughters, J (2012. August 13). Vaughters: ‘I Chose to Dope’. Retrieved November 12, 2012 from http://bicycling.com/blogs/thisjustin/2012/08/13/vaughters-i-chose-to-dope/

Jawgap

What grade did you get?

Btw - it's barely 750 words - is that just the Exec Summary

When I were a lad, proper essays ran for at least 2,500 words.......

pprendeville

No grade yet it hopefully in the 60s maybe. Short essay then. think they take it easy on us as we're doing Chinese also and the time needed to learn characters is seriously long.

Did u get exiled in Meath for too short an essay?

Raam

Did you have to write it in Chinese?

Jawgap

pprendeville wrote: »

No grade yet it hopefully in the 60s maybe. Short essay then. think they take it easy on us as we're doing Chinese also and the time needed to learn characters is seriously long.

Did u get exiled in Meath for too short an essay?

Good luck with it - and the Chinese too.....

As for exile - no, I used to wave casually at the word limits as I passed them by. Writing concisely is a skill I didn't take the time to master.

Lusk Doyle

pprendeville wrote: »

No grade yet it hopefully in the 60s maybe. Short essay then. think they take it easy on us as we're doing Chinese also and the time needed to learn characters is seriously long.

Did u get exiled in Meath for too short an essay?

Love the aspirations!

pprendeville

Lusk Doyle wrote: »

Love the aspirations!

Save those for serious things like A3 racing next year. Didn't have to write it in Chinese. That would be a little bit hard me thinks.

pprendeville

55%. A pass.

RidleyRider

pprendeville wrote: »

55%. A pass.

How bad.

Good short essay though.