SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

If we believe that what we are doing (or taking) is having a positive impact on performance or recovery (and then performance), then to stop would mean harming performance and who wants to do worse or make things more difficult? There is pressure to perform well: From sponsors, team management, team mates, and the public/fans. Can you perform up to those expectations, live with the consequences of not meeting those expectations, or will you give in to the temptation of taking something illegal to give you more confidence in your performance? The fear of failure is a strong one. There are personal and professional needs to be satisfied. Athletes are competitive. Some have a strong need to be successful, gain glory, be seen on TV, be accepted, praised, beat a key rival, show that our training has been worth it, that we are as good as or better than before... It’s tempting then to take something that would help us deliver and satisfy these needs. We believe that others are doing it...

BBC website announces today: ‘Former Olympic triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards is happy the British Olympic Association's lifetime ban for drug cheats looks set to be overturned.’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/17818958   Without going into how we as spectators think or feel about this issue, I’m interested in the impact that this issue might have on other competitors – those competing in the sports that the previously banned athletes compete in. Athlete A:   With a strong sense of right and wrong, Athlete A gets further fired-up and motivated to show the drug cheats that they are better, that they can win clean, expecting their performance to do the talking. This news of allowing, or potentially allowing, the banned athletes back in, is motivating, helping them prepare and perform. Athlete B:   With a belief that the sports officials, system or the world lets them down, Athlete B becomes angry at the developments. They may either get fired-up...

This isn't anything academic, but simply some straight-forward thoughts I've typed-up after I was interviewed on this topic on Sky News. Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen has been asked to leave the tour after questions over whether he failed to tell the drug testing authorities where he would be during his preparation for the Tour. It has emerged that despite telling the press for over a week that he was training in Mexico, his wife’s homeland, he was actually in Italy. Suspicion has increased as to whether he purposely deceived the testers so he could take cycle of drugs or other blood doping (e.g. EPO) during this period, and only looks worse now there is evidence that he lied. Two other riders have tested positive this week for banned drugs and pre-Tour favourite Alexandre Vinokourov displayed traces of someone else’s blood – all three have been kicked out of the Tour. Worse still for British hopes, two entire teams have left the Tour along with their disgraced riders...