ABSTRACT
In his historical examination of the development of sports medicine and its growing prominence in elite level sport, Hoberman asserts that a drive for performance enhancement is “the inherent logic of high-performance sport” and offers an insight into the scientific and medical practices (and some of the associated dilemmas) of practitioners involved in this performance-centered work setting. 1 In a similarly developmental approach, Waddington contends that the association of sports medicine with athletic performance has arisen from its development within both an increasingly “medicalized” society and a contemporary sporting context driven by a “win at all costs” ethic. 2 Thus, for Waddington, practitioners are willing to make their skills available to those who simply request their services as well as those eager to improve their level of performance. Both analyses provide well-documented accounts of sport medicine’s development and its association with performance enhancement.
