ABSTRACT
The fact that athletes are role models has made some fear that if doping is allowed and top athletes use doping, it might inspire young athletes to use doping as well. And this is bad, because doping is unhealthy. Two critiques of this type of argument are at the focus in this chapter. First, it is unclear whether there are any correlation at all between what the so-called role models do and what young people, who look up to those role models, do. Under any circumstance, we can see that most young fans are hardly as disciplined as the elite athletes and therefore do not imitate their idols in everything they do. And if a correlation should exist in some areas between athletes and their young fans, it is unclear whether the young people will necessarily imitate their role models in a certain area – such as using doping. Second, the argument assumes the very thing that must be proven: Namely, that doping is immoral because it is harmful. However, as clarified in Chapter 1, doping, within some boundaries, is not harmful, quite the contrary. So if young people become inspired by older and more seasoned athletes to use doping, this would be unproblematic from a moral standpoint.
