TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dyer, Bryce
AU  - Richardson, Andrew 
PY  - 2026/01/01
Y2  - 2026/01/02
TI  - Dying to be successful ? Revisiting the Goldman Dilemma in the age of cycling esports.
JF  - International Journal of Esports
JA  - IJE
VL  - 1
IS  - 1
SE  - Original Research Article
DO  - 
UR  - https://www.ijesports.org/article/166/html
SP  - 
AB  - <p>The Goldman Dilemma is a controversial and hypothetical scenario that offers an athlete a reward or success in exchange for certain death within a fixed period of time. This infamous Faustian bargain has been applied periodically to a variety of sports and athlete types over the past four decades. Variations of the Goldman’s Dilemma were posed to a sample of 370 esport racing cyclists through online social media pages. The participants were asked whether they would accept the Faustian Bargain by using a drug that guaranteed either sporting success or a considerable financial reward but would ultimately result in their death in five years’ time. The rate of acceptance of the Goldman Dilemma variants in this study was no greater than 2.8% of the sample. However, when the threat of certain death was then removed, the inclination to take the drug to achieve the same rewards rose considerably to 28% and did vary based upon gender in one instance. Whilst this study continues to support the broadly held viewpoint that the Goldman Dilemma is seen as a potential fallacy, it does provide further evidence of esport athletes’ hypothetical propensity to potentially take performance enhancing drugs which should be taken seriously in light of the upcoming IOC Esport Games.</p>
ER  -