History Of Performance Enhancing Drugs

In every sport, there has always been a desire to win. Some athletes will do anything to make winning possible. Every elite athlete wants to be better than their opponent. Some rely on performance enhancing drugs, also known as PED’s, to improve their game. This topic is very important because it can be the difference between winning and losing. Winning can mean money, fame and a place in history. I believe athletes should not use PED’s in sports because it is an unfair advantage, health risk, bad role modeling, bad sportsmanship, and results in tainted records and awards.

Performance-enhancing drugs (PED 's) have been an issue for many decades now for the medical and sports field. Olympic and professional athletes have been using them to gain an upper hand on the competition, but some may ask if it 's really worth it? Studies show that performance-enhancing drugs have been proven to negatively affect the health of athletes who take them. Simply put, performance-enhancing drugs could either improve athletic performance or can be extremely dangerous, in certain situations, deadly. There have been strict rules and drug testing in the professional sporting organizations, as well as in world competitions. For example, in the summer of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, in two of the

The benefits of using some types of performance-enhancing drugs are obvious. Professional athletes have a very 'short shelf life' as competitors in most sports and must cash in on their talents as soon as possible. For Olympic athletes, the

My first reason to not agree with performance enhancing drugs are because in most if not all schools and organizations have rules that strictly state that these performance enhancing drugs are completely prohibited. So since these schools and organizations have rules against the performance enhancing drugs already then I cannot see why people

Performance enhancing drugs, or steroids, are defined as substances used to improve physical performance. There are many types of steroidal performance enhancers. The first of these performance enhancing drugs are anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids are also known as androgen steroids, and they are used to increase the muscle mass and strength of a person. A natural anabolic steroid is testosterone, which your body naturally produces. Some athletes take straight testosterone which is another way to boost your athletic performance. This has the same effect as anabolic steroids, but it is natural and can be found within the body. Anabolic steroids are so effective and appealing to athletes, because they allow athletes to recover faster from a

This is because when athletes take steroids they get much stronger and it gives them a better advantage than other athletes. Many people think that these athletes have records and played like a legend in the game only did it because they took steroids. People believe that they didn’t deserve to become amazing since they cheated and steroids helped them. Taking steroids can cause your health to be bad and can possibly be hurting others. Taking steroids is very dangerous and people should be punished

Sports illustrated interviewed a cohort (group of people) of elite Olympic athletes, asking, “If you were given a performance-enhancing substance, you would not be caught, and you would win, would you take it? Ninety-eight percent of athletes answered yes.”(Charleston) That is a big number. Big risk with such a small chance of success. Taking drugs to enhance your performance is just not right. Striving to get better, takes patience and perseverance. Athletes are known for their road they take to get to where they are today. Along with jail time, athletes that commit illegal acts should be banned from their sport, for their careers will never be the same, children should not look up to athletes who do those things, and the chance of losing

Out of the 21,849 drug tests during the 1968-2008 summer games there was 105 cases of positive drug tests (“Drugs and athletes”). Performance Enhancing Drugs can either be Stimulants, Anabolic-androgenic steroids, human growth hormones, and Erythropoientin (“Performance Enhancing”). PED’s improve your overall athletic performance. PED’ are harmful and can even be fatal. Athletes use these substances to gain an unfair advantage to become better than their opponent. Athletes who use PED’s violate the spirit of competition and makes it not fun to compete for players who respect the rules. Every year countless players take PED’s to give them an unfair boost that can harm them, it also does not show their true athleticism on the field.

Many argue that PEDs don't do anything for the fighters strength and only help the endurance of the fighter. Many say they do not do any harm to any human beings, the user nor the opposition. "There is no coherent argument to support the view that enhancing performance is unfair; if it were, we would ban coaching and training. Competition can be unfair if there is unequal access to particular enhancements, but equal access can be achieved more predictably by deregulation than by prohibition." (Dr. Norman Fost). "If each of us ought to be free to assume risks that we think are worth taking, shouldn't athletes have the same freedom as anyone else? After all, if we should not forbid smokers from risking their health by smoking, why should we prohibit track stars or weightlifters from taking risks with their health in pursuit of their goals?" (Dr. Robert Simon). To the main points of why PEDs should be illegal, many come with counterarguments, such as qualified physicians and doctors, to prove that illegal PEDs do not provide an unfair advantage against the opposition. PEDs should stay illegal for the very fact that they are hazardous to not only your health, but to others as well. Not only are they illegal but they are also morally

Performance enhancing drugs should be eliminated from all sports because they create an unfair competitive advantage. I am against the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in sports because it is a worldwide problem that takes the integrity out of the game. There are so many people involved from trainers, players and coaches. In the past athletes played for love of the game, today however, the players have so much more at stake then just being able to play the game because they love it.

Over the years, sports have changed dramatically. One major change has been the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED’s). This is a very controversial issue in all levels of sports today. Some people think this is a good thing to allow, while some think the complete opposite. Whenever sports were first becoming very popular, the use of PED’s were not available. There were no drugs to alter an athlete's performance on the field or court because the technology was simply not available to produce these. Although the drugs were not available, the sports were still interesting to watch and the athletes still played at a very high level. They did not need drugs to make themselves better because no one was using them which made the playing field

Athletes who use drugs have a “win at all costs” mentality that is actually quite frightening.NEED BETTER EVIDENCE AND FACTS A study was done in which athletes were questioned as to whether or not they would be willing to take drugs in order to win competitions, knowing they could die from the illegal abuse. Many responded with a yes. This should be quite alarming. Those athletes are affected by what's called coercion. This means that the athletes who take PEDs, who are at an unfair advantage, are affecting the entire community in that sport. The non users want to stay/get to the top. The only way to compete with a synthetic overload of hormones is to get a synthetic overload of hormones. It's as simple as that. The athletes who use anabolic steroids get hooked and use more substance in hopes they can stay at the top and gain a leg in the competition. It snowballs into everyone in the league using steroids to perform at a higher level. This can be thought of as peer pressure, but a very serious form of it. At that point, it's just a competition between pharmacologically enhanced

Some believe that athletes should be able to what they want to do, and that it should not matter what the athletes do behind the scenes, because what only matters is how they perform. But, regardless of what some people think, PEDs are dangerous and can lead to brain damage or possibly death. Although some people believe that athletes should be able to do what they want to be able to perform, others would rather see great exciting sport events, than have to worry about the health of athletes. Athletes can be healthy and are capable of performing at high levels by working hard and eating

Further, if an athlete won a title during the time of their steroids, they risk being stripped of the title, medals and records. The MLB was accused of “looking the other way” when popular players Barry Bonds, and Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa were setting all-time records in the mid-to-late 1990’s, but it still took until 2005 for the MLB to implement strict testing. Lance Armstrong won 7 Tour De France titles, but was later stripped of all titles and records due to his drug use and

On January 17, 2013, Lance Armstrong admitted to doping during his professional cycle careers. He joins other great names; such as Tyson Gay, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez; all great athletes who have had their reputations tarnished by using performance enhancing drugs (sometimes shortened to PEDs). In his interview with Opera Winfrey, Armstrong stated that “I didn 't view [doping] [as cheating]. I viewed it as a level playing field” (Lance). With this statement, Armstrong is declaring that many professional cyclists and other professional athletes engage in illegal doping in order to improve their performances. These drugs can be useful for their ability to decrease recovery time, allowing athletes to train more intensely. Currently, most forms of performance enhancing drugs are banned from use in professional sports (caffeine is a common legal substance). However, it is well known that performance enhancing drugs are used by athletes in a wide variety of sports at a variety of levels. Since, according to Armstrong, most athletes are using these drugs, a new approach needs to be implemented to deal with performance enhancing drugs. One possible solution is to just allow the use of performance enhancing drugs.