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Performance Enhancing Drugs: A Case Study

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Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) have been created to enable athletes who compete in a majority of sports to improve endurance and skill when competing. Illicit drugs should certainly not be legalised to be taken in sport, especially to enhance performance. For a number of years now, society has seen several athletes fall from their significant careers in disgrace, shame and often with fatal health risks. Consuming any form of drug that substantially improves achievement in the athlete’s chosen sport have always been considered as cheating, this shouldn’t change now. Along with performing as an dishonest and prejudiced athlete, drugs can also dramatically affect the stability of mental and physical health of that athlete. There are many significant …show more content…

Why should this change? Athletes that have been successful in their sporting career have worked extremely hard to achieve their goals and meet the harsh qualifications and structure that this occupation requires on a daily basis. Training on average an intensive 5 to 6 hours per day, an elite athlete follows a strict diet to maintain a certain standard (Siddharth Suchde, 2015). If cheating, as a result of consuming PEDs, was allowed during training and competitions, the endurance and determination of the athlete would be wasted and the world will forget those who trained through a difficult day and due to this won their dream through talent and sacrifice. Furthermore, considering PEDs as a form of fraud in all sports, displays that cheating may as well be legalised also. If deception is okay in sport, will it be alright in other fields? Will it then be okay to cheat on a math test? Or to plagiarise somebody else’s efforts? Cheating the way to the top is not an option, unless sport is to fall into a tedious activity that is unenjoyable to …show more content…

There are many medical risks involved when taking drugs, particularly when taken on a regular basis. Professional athletes will experience extreme pressure to take PEDs, if legalised, expecting to fall behind the rest and perform below standard if they don’t. The majority of athletes would give in to this expectation, and will witness their bodies deteriorate as a result of the drugs, leaving the world with few naturally talented athletes left. In addition to scientific explanations and experimental conducts on these drugs, proving them to be extremely detrimental to anybody’s health; PEDs present the athlete’s and their sponsors with an unnecessary cost on medical bills as well as the cost of the drugs. An example of a fatal incident due to PEDs, is the death of British cyclist, Tommy Simpson; who died after his body shut down during the 13th stage of the Tour de France in 1965 (ProCon.org, 2015). Drugs have developed over this time and will only be more harmful, justifying why it is ridiculous even considering legalising PEDs in

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