Crime, Deviance and Doping

Today's sports stars are hailed as heroes and marketed as celebrities, but can also suffer disgrace in the face of scandals about doping. Such a fall from grace turns heroes and role-models into villains, and sees them labelled them as 'cheats', 'liars', dopers' and even 'criminals'. How do fallen stars respond to such stigma? Majid Yar suggests that these sports stars use autobiographical story-telling as a form of public performance, in an attempt to explain their transgressions and challenge the deviant labels that they have acquired. Drawing upon sociological and criminological perspectives, and centred upon Erving Goffman's account of self-presentation and identity, this fascinating study illuminates how five fallen stars, Lance Armstrong, Dwain Chambers, Tyler Hamilton, Marion Jones and Mark Millar, use confessional acts of story-telling to seek forgiveness, vindication and redemption.