Ever since the unending scandal surrounding Spanish doping doctor Fuentes and his high-profile clients, even the most stubborn fans have had to admit that doping pervades professional sport. It is a web of wealthy sponsors and television broadcasters, ambitious officials, ruthless managers and, of course, coaches and athletes hungry for success. This is the dead-end of sports. 

Yet even after all the revelations and confessions, the cartel of blood manipulators and falsified samples has been forced to accept some scrutiny. Those who observe the sport closely believe the public does not care much about the deadly business of doping. All they want are heroes, spectacle and sensation. At any cost.

Blood and Circus examines the history of doping and dismantles the myth of the lone cheat. Witnesses confirm that even rigorous testing is no guarantee of clean sport. On the contrary: precisely because tests are inadequate and can be circumvented, they offer the doping networks and their backers the perfect alibi.

In the first episode we speak with: sprinter Ben Johnson and his coach Charlie Francis; 100m and 200m world champion Kelli White; professional cyclists Jörg Jaksche and Frankie Andreu; BALCO founder Victor Conte; doping control officer Victor Uralets; WADA chairman and IOC member Richard Pound; long-time US anti-doping investigator Wade Exum; US Olympic Committee physician Robert Voy; Florence Griffith-Joyner biographer and journalist Kristina Rebelo; and German doping expert Professor Werner Franke.”