Sports: The Use Of Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports

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.

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.

In the article, “Performance Enhancing Drugs, Paternalism, Meritocracy, and Harm to Sports” by Nicholas Dixon, argues that PED 's should remain banned due to the many different medical risks one could develop when taking drugs mostly, anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids might be the most popular performance-enhancing drugs out there today, but most definitely isn 't the only one being used. There are many medical problems associated with these types of steroids, “they include heart disease, cancer, or other damage to the liver, and damage to both males ' and females ' reproductive system” (Dixon, 247). Anabolic steroids affect an athlete both mentally and physically. The psychological damage one may have is an increased aggressiveness and sexual appetite, sometimes resulting in abnormal

Taking Performance Enhancing Drugs makes the athletes phony and doesn’t show true skill and talent. Rather it shows that the athletes taking them don’t believe in themselves and need to have that extra boost in order to show the sporting world what they are “truly” capable of. PEDs should be banned from sports with a no tolerance policy. The consequences should be stricter and the athlete should be banned from the sport for life so that there will be less athletes to take the PEDs for years to

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.

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

“Commentators claim that performance-enhancing drugs are not right or wrong, simply another strategy to improve performance” (Introduction to Performance-Enhancing Drugs). There are two main problems wrong with the use of drugs being legal. Health of athletes would drop devastatingly, and the true competition would become who gets lucky. “Some mourn the loss of yesterday's baseball heroes, while others argue that sport figures who use performance-enhancing drugs expose flaws in American culture” (Introduction to Performance-Enhancing

Performance enhancers are very prominent in professional sports today. A lot of players are facing suspensions and other penalties for using them. The sport that gets scrutinized the most for this is Baseball. Many former users in the MLB (or formally the NABBP) have come out saying that they were using these drugs while playing. Some of these players are Jorge Sosa, Antonio Bastardo, and the famous Alex Rodriguez. Although these drugs have been prohibited, players are still finding ways around the tests which is why in some other countries they are legal so that no one player can have an unfair advantage.

Groups such as the Clean Sports Collective understand the dangers of PEDs, and were created with the purpose of helping athletes stay clean (Will 2017 be the Year to Defeat Sports Doping). As previously mentioned steroids can cause shrinking of testicles and development of breasts in males. Along with this, steroids can also cause decreased sperm count with possible impotence, masculinization in females, development of acne or jaundice, and many other effects. These side effects are even recognized by the government, which have made some steroids illegal to the general public (How Dangerous are Performance Enhancing Drugs?). If regular citizens are blocked from certain drugs, athletes should not be an exception. Steroids make humans unnatural beings, which shows how dangerous they are. Steroids inject 100 times the testosterone found naturally in a male body (How Dangerous are Performance Enhancing Drugs?). Along with this, taking steroids, gene doping, and other forms of PEDs are dangerous just to take them the wrong way. Theodore Friedmann, the head of a WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) panel on gene doping in a 2010 interview, said on the dangers of gene doping, “The fact is that the material and information that the athletes have is very sparse and very incomplete and is obviously given to them with the hope of encouraging them to do something

The issue of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) has been among the most controversial in the sports world. A number of high profile athletes from Barry Bonds to Lance Armstrong have seen their reputations tarnished as a result of their use of these substances. Even the US Congress has held a number of high profile hearings on the subject to rid professional sports of their usage. In the sports world, it is almost assumed that sports are better when PEDs are removed from the game, and that the sport’s integrity is threatened when its players use these banned substances. Bud Selig, the former commissioner of Major League Baseball, described ridding baseball of PEDs as necessary “to maintain integrity, fairness and a level playing field.” Sports leagues have created highly sophisticated systems to identify players who use PEDs and levy them with harsh punishments. I will argue that the argument from fairness presented by Michael Lavin is not a valid reason to ban PEDs from professional sports. To clarify, my argument is not that PEDs are good for athletes or professional sports, but merely that they should not be banned out of a concern for fairness.

The use of Performance Enhancing Drugs(PED) has a major impact on athletes negatively and cause many problems in sports and competitions. These PEDs should be banned for athletes and competitors on any level because they are, unhealthy and harmful to the body, give users an edge over competitors, and it diminishes the true sportsmanship of the game itself.

Do you want to want to become the peak athlete that you know your body is capable of? Well, this paper will not do that for you, but it will tell you how, and it will tell you why it should be legal to do so. Doping in sports is one of the most extensive debates within the realm of athletics. Whether it be injecting anabolic steroids, consuming them, or blood doping, athletes will do drugs. Doping has no effect on the viewership of the sport. Athletes can always find ways to cheat the system, and trying to prevent the use seems impossible. The use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) should be legalized, as long as it is allowed under medical supervision.

The most commonly discussed issue in sports of the 21st century is the use of performance enhancing drugs by professional athletes. Over the past four years, it has been nearly impossible to turn on the television without hearing something about athletes and these drugs. From former National League MVP Third Baseman Ken Caminiti's admission of steroid use in an issue of Sports Illustrated (Verducci, 2004) to 2006 Tour de France Champion Floyd Landis being stripped of title due to a failed doping test (Blue, 2006) virtually every sport is involved. Are performance enhancing drugs a substance that threatens the very existence of professional sports, or are they the future? Perhaps the issue

This is a material world promoting material values, thus meaning that it should not be surprising to see individuals being willing to do everything in their power in order to make profits. Or should it? The sports community today is troubled by a series of athletes who have yielded to society's pressures and abandoned their principles with the purpose of taking performance enhancing drugs. It is difficult to determine if it would be normal for the masses to judge these individuals, concerning that they are actually one of the reasons for which these people have come to consider taking performance enhancing drugs in the first place. However, the only ones who can judge them are other hard-working sportspersons who have stood by their principles and who respect the idea of sport in general.

Besides the awful side effects from using them, they are illegal in the United States. Most athletes just throw the law out the window, as long as the drugs that they take make them hit harder, run faster, and recover faster. They do it for the “Now” and not the “Later”. They want the hits and scores now and will do whatever it takes to score points. Having a Zero Tolerance Policy in all Sports leagues is the way to go. There needs be better testing procedures for detecting the use of PED’s. One regulation (AR 600-85) that they have in the US Military is “Pop hot once and you’re done”. There is a absolute zero tolerance policy for any type of drug. That’s what they need to incorporate in all American Sports