Elite athletes are constantly striving to be the best athletes they can be. For this to occur, athletes tend to risk their health just so they can come out on top with regards to their performance. Taking risks is socially constricted and one may habitually answer to risk. Athletes always crave to do their best, but in doing so, it occasionally leads to other issues. The more one trains the more stress that is put on the body. The idea that one is taking risks is that they are confronting the possibility of being injured. Thus, these athletes taking part in the risk culture are lifestyle choices. Athletes taking part in sport specific risk behaviours for victory is becoming a social health problem. The risks taken to search for the normalized image are because of social and self pressures as well as the use of performance enhancing drugs.
We see in everyday life that athletes are pushing themselves to strive for victory, and a reason for this is because they feel pressured from society. People are continuing to search for the ideal body that has been constructed, but to achieve this risk is taken. Media plays a big part in this because it shows the power in who is the ideal athlete. We have been constructed to believe what the ideal athlete`s body should look like. Therefore, society feels they need to attain this normalized look.
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There are public expectations for the athletes televised to always be perfect, and to do everything correct. This can lead athletes to unhealthy habits during training as they want to appear perfect to please the audience. That being the case, today we are moving away from what the meaning of sport is and moving toward it being for entertainment and what the audience thinks. Consequently, this is affecting the athletes and how they perform to get the audience to respond in the way that makes the athlete feel worthy (Verroken, 2011,