Years ago, when I was an avid cyclist, I was turned off my first local race, a meaningless city race. Three guys, and two girls were doping in the parking lot. To this day I have yet to be at a single race where people aren't doping prior.
I should add, not everyone dopes though. My sport was relatively clean due to the amateur nature and the limited efficacy. Those of us who leaned toward technical competency were usually able to take on the roid-dudes without too much difficulty.
Are you aware that winning is itself a payoff for certain people? And they want to win at everything, at every level?
You may not sympathize with these people, or agree with them, but they are not difficult to understand. In fact, they are easy to understand.
When people ask me why there is doping in masters bicycle racing, I quote: "Why are University Politics so vicious? Because the stakes are so small."
People's desire to "win," and the lengths they will go to "win," are not tied to economic or power rewards.
Well, naturally if you look at it like that, then why cheat except possibly because you are curious about how far you can take your body with assistance?
But we are not the ones cheating, and the people who cheat do not look at amateur sports they way we do. To them, there is a top dog in everything, And it's meaningful to them to be the top dog.
No matter how small the pond, there's always somebody who cares very deeply about being the biggest fish.
Since everything is monitizible, we'll probably see cheating in many places we dont traditionally see it. It reminds me of the movie limitless, everyone successful was doing the drug