Juicy knowledge: User-generated information about steroids, 1970-2000s

In 1988, the world was shocked when the “fastest man in the world,” Ben Johnson, failed a drug test after his celebrated victory in the 100-meter dash at the Seoul Olympics. Subsequent inquiries in North America showed that performance-enhancing drug use was common throughout the sporting world. While the literature on doping in sport has focused on elite athletes, Catherine’s project examines the use of steroids among a broad range of users, including body builders and high school football players in the late twentieth century. It will add to our understanding of how medical and pharmaceutical knowledge is taken up and re-shaped by a wide variety of people without formal medical training. It will contribute to our understanding of medical expertise at a time when professional medicine was being attacked on many sides and explain how drug-taking, both licit and illicit, became an increasingly normalized part of life.