Professional Athletes who Cheat in Sports Essay

Many children all across the United States and other countries try to replicate their favorite superstar athlete. Many athletes become the children’s idol and once the child learns that the athlete has cheated the game the athlete plays the child no longer looks up to the athlete. It is almost gotten to the point where no athlete that excels in a particular sport can be trusted. Every time a single athlete becomes great at their respective sport, speculation of steroid abuse immediately follows.

In 1990 Congress passed the Anabolic Steroids Control Act, but didn’t say how the offenders would be caught. “The next year MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent made it clear in a memo that this was very much relevant to baseball.”(Rymer) The memo read as follows: “The possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance by Major League players and personnel is strictly prohibited. Major League players or personnel involved in the possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance are subject to discipline by the Commissioner and risk permanent expulsion from the game… This prohibition applies to all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids or prescription drugs for which the individual in possession of the drug does not have a prescription.”(ESPN) Every player who

Athletes are always searching for ways to enhance their performance. Recently, beginning in the 1950s, that search has included the use of illegal substances like steroids and growth hormones. Illegal substances have been used widely by athletes in hop es of achieving the desired Olympic gold medal or multi-million dollar contract. Some nations, for example the late East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, have mandated the use of steroids by their athletes. The downside of using those illegal substances is that because they are illegal, getting caught using them can lead to losing that coveted gold medal, a lifetime ban from sports, and a total loss of honor and dignity. This is why the search is now on to find some legal

This news article gives a variety of issues that emerged on account of the utilization of steroids in expert games. For instance, on 1976 the International Olympic Committee restricted the utilization of steroids. Steroid use in expert games turned into a gigantic point when competitors were getting discovered utilizing the execution improving medication.

Bonds, pressured to erase any room for doubt, claimed in court that he “never paid Anderson for drugs or supplements but acknowledges paying him $15,000 for weight training” (ESPN). As Bonds continued to finish up his 3rd season in the MLB, BALCO was caught and punished for the crimes of distributing non-eligible substances to athletes across the sports world. ESPN described the exact charges against BALCO as “Attorney General John Ashcroft announces a 42-count indictment against four men in the BALCO case: Conte, BALCO vice president James J. Valente, Anderson and East Bay track coach Remi Korchemny. They are accused of distributing illegal drugs to athletes and money-laundering. Upon arraignment, all four plead not guilty” (ESPN).

The largest Performance Enhancing Drug scandal, in baseball, all started over a debt owed to Porter Fischer in 2013. Fischer worked for Tony Bosch who owned a clinic called Biogenesis of America, which specialized in weight loss and hormone replacement therapy. When Bosch did not pay back his debt to Fischer, Fischer became angry and wanted revenge. This is when Porter stole documents from Tony to get his revenge by letting the world know who “Dr. Tony Bosch,” is what he called himself even though he wasn’t a real doctor, really was doing at this so called “clinic”. In the documents that had all the client names there were twenty Major League ballplayers that MLB ended up linking to the clinic, but only one stood out to Fischer: Alex Rodriguez. This was an eye opener for Major League Baseball and they knew something needed to be done about the use of PEDs in the sport of baseball.

The Olympics now have various organizations and committees delegated to testing for and eliminating the use of performance enhancing drugs. The most recent Olympic committee for the Games in Vancouver was partnered with the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, L’Institut national de la recherche scientifique — Institut Armand-Frappier, the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and LifeLabs to collect and test approximately 2450 blood and urine samples (“Anti-Doping Initiatives”). Their meticulousness and commitment was most definitely justified. Olympic athletes implicitly agree to a social contract of fair competition. Those athletes who take steroids have an unfair advantage over those who do not, and therefore these athletes are breaking this social contract.

Athletics play such an important role in our society, but, unfortunately, some in professional sports are not setting much of an example. The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message -- that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now.”

“…medical researchers believe that between 1 and 3 million youths and adults have taken anabolic steroids in one form or another specifically to enhance their looks or athletic performances,” stated Nuwer (Nuwer, 61). As astounding as these figures are, the number of performance drug users is steadily increasing. With this progressively increasing numbers, it is projected that millions more will use steroids in the immediate future (Newer, 61). Athletes have always sought an advantage in competition even if ignoring the law and their health if necessary. Using drugs of any sort to facilitate an athlete’s athletic ability should be illegal. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only detrimental to the user but it also creates an

For as long as we can remember, there has been a talk of steroid use in high-stake sports. Whether it be accusations, and pointing fingers, or that the insanely

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.

caught doing steroids, or any coach who distributed them, were eliminated from the sports program. Soviet scientists and

Many people believe that drug use in professional athletics is not a serious problem, however it is more widespread and serious than people think. In professional athletics the use of drugs is looked upon as somewhat of a serious problem, but is also very discrete and low key. Every once in a while one might see a prominent figure in a certain sport being reprimanded for the use of some outlawed drug, however this is just one of the many who happened to get caught. Athletes today seem to find no moral problem with using performance-enhancing drugs, or in other words cheating. Also many of them feel that because they are "stars" there should be no repercussions for their illegal activity.

Once and for all, I did not use steroids or any other illegal substance. (Mark McGwire) Doping in Sport and the current issues and challenges for sport management, how did it all start and what now? Sports in the world have been generating billions and billions of dollars for years. This money comes from sponsorships, media rights, and legal gambling. All of a sudden, out of know where several sports have been destroyed by doping. Doping has questioned the integrity of most sports on a global scale. A combination of sports businesses and the federal government has joined forces to place laws and punishments to stop the use of both performance enhancing and recreational drugs. For years it has been argued that small progress has been made due to ineffective plans and strategies for dealing with doping in sports because of commitment from the organization within. Many have opinions on the poor management and lack of reliable information to implement an appropriate doping policy. (Doping in sports, 2014)

Sports are a huge part of the world’s history. Anyone can look in a textbook or on the internet and see that sports have been played for a long time, whether they be competitive or recreational. Sports bring people of different beliefs, cultures, and races together. Sports are something that can help people to forget the problems that are happening in an increasingly scary world. While sports are great and the athletes that perform for these crowds are dedicated to putting on a show, there are some athletes that feel they need a competitive edge over the other players to truly shine in some of the greatest spotlights in the world. These players go on to lead their league in certain statistics in a year, or even start to work their way up the record books. Not all athletes do this the ethical way however. Some athletes turn to performance enhancing drugs, otherwise known as PEDs, to help them gain that edge over the other athletes. There are issues that are occurring regularly in the sporting world due to athletes taking PEDS. The playing field becomes quite uneven for athletes, on and off the field. Another issue that arises when PEDs are discussed is whether players should be able to make the decision for themselves whether to take the performance enhancing drug or not. Lastly, a big issue that is talked about is whether PEDs are effecting the history of sports and damaging the past players’ achievements. How can these issues disappear? The answer is to close the current