Doping in Sports and the Current Issues for Management

Performance-Enhancing drugs are an unnatural way of changing one's body, and the effects can be life altering, sometimes better yet always, in the end, much worse. It is for this reason why major league sports have put strict rules in place suspending athletes who use these drugs; the Olympics ban these athletes for life. These drugs harm the bodies and minds of athletes, and they are banned to protect their health for their benefit and for the sports as well.

Athletes use performance enhancing drugs to boost their game. The professionals who use these drugs are ruining the integrity of the game. Many people don’t understand why professional athletes would go to such extreme measures to be better when they have already proven themselves. Athletes are just taking away from their natural ability by using these dangerous drugs. The risk of using performance enhancing drugs is a lot greater than the reward, because an athlete’s reputation could be tarnished and their career ruined. Money is one of the major reasons why players use them; if they perform at levels higher than what their natural abilities could do they will be offered a large sum of money.

A number of prominent athletes have recently experienced a 'fall from grace,' because of the revelation that they used performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps the most famous example of this phenomenon is Lance Armstrong. In an advertisement for Nike that his former sponsor now no doubt regrets, Armstrong is shown asking the viewer "what am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day." Professional cycling is often cited as one of the sports in which doping is most endemic to its subculture, however a number of professional sports have been embroiled in drug scandals. Because of the many revelations about the number of baseball players who used steroids to get their record-breaking statistics, the 1990s are often called the 'steroid' era of baseball. The Olympic track and field star Marian Jones was stripped of her medals, after finally admitting to the use of performance-enhancing drugs (Lardon 2008). "Despite the health risks, and despite the regulating bodies' attempts to eliminate drugs from sport, the use of illegal substances is widely known to be rife. It hardly raises an eyebrow now when some famous athlete fails a dope test" (Savulescu, Foddy, & Clayton 2004).

For many years sports have played huge roles in human’s everyday lives. From entertainment, political, financial and to actually competing in them. The task for the sportsmen or women, especially in the top rank, is to beat the other competitors and get a good result from it. Here there is a high amount of pressure on many athletes coming from the media, coaches, themselves etc. They have the wanting to do well and achieve their goals and aims so much that some of the athletes turn to performance enhancing drugs. Obviously training for competition is the main thing to do but using drugs is another helper to succeeding. So, to their way of thinking, doping does not seem like cheating it just seems like

How fast do we need to see a person run or bike, how far do we need to see a baseball hit or how hard do we need to see a football player tackled. The human body is an incredible machine in itself, why do we need to push that machine to limits that are not natural. Performance enhancing drugs allow for several advantages for athletes they assist in the rapid development of muscle mass and strength, they enhance focus and timing and most importantly to a professional athlete some performance enhancing drugs allow for quicker recovery time from injuries. Athletes are vulnerable; one injury could end the career that they have worked their entire lives for, and so the ability to recover at a much faster rate than a non-doping athlete is an advantage unto itself.

The use of drugs date back to the ancient Olympic games. This is where the word doping originated from which was the Greek word “doop” (CITE). Performance enhancing substances also known as steroids are used for the improvement of human activity. Because drug use is also a huge thing outside the United States the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) was created as the first international governing body to prohibit doping. However, at the 1960’s Olympic the first athlete to die of doping was of the name Knut Jensen. He was a Danish cyclist who was found with narcotics in his system which resulted to his death. In result, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was established to fight doping. The United States created their own anti-doping agency called United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Therefore, drug testing is an important factor in professional sports world-wide.

Doping in sports has caused a lot of controversy throughout the years in the sports world from youth sports to the professionals. The World Anti-Doping Agency does their best to catch all the drug users but falls short with some people. This causes for an “unfair” advantage and goes against the true value of sport. It can make these players stronger and more athletic which causes more excitement for the fans to watch, more revenue for teams, and growing popularity. Using performance-enhancing drugs is banned in almost every sport, but with the allowed use of them could bring to the players and the sports teams themselves, could outweigh the negative effects of them being used in sports.

The main belief among young athletes is that by using drugs (especially performance-enhancing drugs), they will gain a competitive advantage among the competition. However, no matter the purpose, taking steroids or other drugs not prescribed by a physician is illegal and needs to be closely monitored at all levels of athletics. Some people might believe that mandatory drug testing would cause turmoil

Nobody would argue that the quality of sports is basically dependent upon the level of skill of its players. As the skills of the players improve, so too does the quality of the game. So why are substances that would further athletes’ skills beyond human levels so ostracized? Doping is the practice of using steroids and other illegal substances to boost performance in sports and athletics. The debate of the morality of such substances has been going on for decades and continues to affect the world of sports in many ways. At the moment, steroids and all other performance-enhancing drugs are banned in their entirety from nearly all sports in most countries of the world. Scandalous lawsuits involving athletes abusing substances are constantly popping up, usually involving players and athletes that were considered fan-favorites or even heroes. Performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in sports because it would make it easier to control them, allow athletes to perform better, and widespread use of steroids would allow more solid research and advancements in the pharmaceutical field.

In the days when steroids were only being used by body builders and professional wrestlers, stories about performance enhancing drugs could only be found on the back pages of the newspapers. When former Oakland Raiders All-Pro Lyle Alzado admitted to steroid use in a 1991 Sports Illustrated article the whispers about what professional athletes were using steroids began to get louder. (Puma, 2005) Finally, in 2002, when Caminiti, a former MVP, came clean, two things were clear; athletes in all sports were using these drugs, and that they worked. The fact that steroid use had permeated our national pastime combined with the media explosion of the internet and 24 hour a day sports talk created a perfect storm which created the biggest sports story of the new millennium so far. However, two other facts remained clear, performance enhancing drugs were old news, and athletes in all sports from all over the world had been using them for years.

Historical National Football League coach and manager Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning isn 't everything--but wanting to win is”. The want to win, is real; it is embodied by the usage of performance enhancing drugs. Blood doping increases the count of red blood cells in the body, anabolic steroids accelerate the growth of muscle and strengthen the bones, and stimulants increase alertness, competitiveness, aggressiveness and reduce fatigue. All of these materials have clear benefits but the health implications are still very present. Many cases of injury from these substances have consequences as serious as death. Athletes worldwide put their bodies and health at risk due to the usage of performance enhancing drugs and methods such as blood doping, steroids, and injections. But in retrospect, it harms a lot more than just an athlete’s body; in fact, performance enhancing drugs and supplements plague the athletic playing field worldwide, which leads to social unrest, health issues, and even political issues.

It’s crazy, why people think that it's okay to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDS) . It gives the most unfair advantage in sports such as Increased leanness and muscle definition, Increased muscle mass, General weight gain, Increased strength, Increased effectiveness of training, Improved recovery rate Euphoria (feelings of positivity and confidence), and Increased aggressiveness. This is why I think PEDS do not belong in professional sports.

The principle of the sport is that every human works with the strength they are willing to attain, but doing this artificially is cheating. While there are plenty of advantages people are predisposed to like genes that give them superior fast-twitch muscle strength or long legs and arms, a pure sport by the rules should be down to physical advantages only altered by how hard athletes work for medals. Since the beginning of all games between humans, dishonesty has been discouraged. To alienate those principles could backfire when more developed countries immediately overpower weaker countries who can't afford such medical endeavors. And there's no coincidence that countries are shamed for this practice. Yet some have reason to argue that if drugs and alterations are legalized in sport this could actually be safer for athletes. Who rather than working under sketchy sources can be provided with information to make the best decision about the drugs based on specific needs. But, had there not been drugs involved in be out of tradition but integrity that athletes honor what it takes to be the best instead of cheating to get

Doping has widely become known as the use of banned substances and practices by sports personnel particularly athletes in an attempt to improve sporting performances. No sensible fan of sport today denies the prevalence of drugs in virtually every major sport, yet none would argue they can ever be eliminated completely. Money alone would seem to guarantee that much. High profile athletes today are competing for high stakes, not just millions, but dozens of millions. The fear of losing everything career, opportunity, contracts, name, fame, and money is pushing more sportsmen all over the world to use performance enhancing drugs, mainly

According to Dr. Charles E. Yesalis, a professor health and human development at Penn St. University, "drug use among athletes has gone dramatically up in recent years. Athletes also are becoming more venturesome about mixing different types of drugs. One reason is that new drugs keep coming on the market, and some turn out to be of help in giving athletes a competitive edge. Sports officials feel they have no choice but to try to combat drug use in sports with every legitimate weapon at their command. They are motivated in part by concern for athletes' well being. Most performance-enhancing agents have side effects that can pose an immediate or long-range threat to health. But the officials are driven by self-interest too. If the public perceive major sports to be hopelessly drug-ridden, attendance and television viewership is likely to plummet. And thatcould lead to financial ruin for athletes and promoters alike. The monetary stakes are higher today than ever before. Many of the top athletes damned very high salaries, and a select few demand huge additional sums for product endorsement. Pro team owners, meanwhile, are constantly scrambling for more income from broadcasting and other sources to meet their massive payrolls and still turn a profit. A series of drug scandals might well cause media outlets and corporate sponsors