Pursuit Race Riders
July 26, 2021 11:48 PM Subscribe
What percentage of pursuit race riders from 1900-1929 were heroin addicts?, or, who would you hire to find out the answer to that question? My first thought was research librarian. If research librarian is correct; Is there a way to hire a reputable research librarian per question?
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But! There is a ton of research/many papers about the history of doping in sports (and in cycling specifically) and a librarian (ideally at a university or large public library) should be able to find you some articles/books/book chapters on this topic*, though these might not answer your exact question precisely.
If you can't find a secondary source that answers your question, this becomes a real research question that would require consulting primary sources, etc., in which case you'll need to spend some time defining your question - you'll need to pick a definition of who counts as a "heroin addict" (vs. an occasional user) and decide what kind of evidence you'll accept/require to decide whether someone was an addict. You'll even have to decide who counts as a "pursuit race rider" (is it anyone who ever participated in a pursuit race? people who ranked in the top X finishers? what counts as a pursuit race?). To get a proper answer to your question you would probably want to work with someone who specializes in this area (e.g. a sports historian?).
* Here's an article that doesn't have a lot of detail about opiate use by cyclists, but it cites some useful-looking books and articles that you could track down with the help of a librarian: Drug abuse in athletes.
posted by mskyle at 6:15 AM on July 27, 2021 [3 favorites]