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The literature on East Germany, sport and performance-enhancing drugs emphasizes the power of the state in totalitarian society and the abuse of athletes. Doping is referred to as a system or machine, which was state-sponsored, mandatory, secretive, abusive and corrupt. This fits easily with both political understandings of East German society and understandings of the cultural values of sport. In this article, we map the flawed and simplistic model of East German society that over-emphasizes structure and under-emphasizes agency. From there, we will draw from individuals' accounts of their experiences to develop a more complex, nuanced and sophisticated account of doping in East Germany.
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Dimeo et al. (2011) studied this question.
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