Many types of athletes from high school students to world class Olympians have used both recreational and performance-enhancing drugs. “Recreational drugs are among the substances banned by the WADA, (World Anti-Doping Agency), the international organization that enforces drugs for the Olympics and other international sporting events.” (Drugs). Marijuana, cocaine, and other illegal drugs are recreational drugs that are used for pleasure. Athletes are forced to take drug tests, and if they test positive, they may be banned from competition and or suspended. However, there have been athletes that have argued with the sports organizations saying they should focus more on the performance-enhancing drugs. “Performance-enhancing drugs are chemicals that can improve a person’s strength, endurance, or recovery from vigorous exercise.”(Drugs). In 1999, sports organizations such as the WADA and the USADA, (United States Anti-Doping Agency), banned the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and created an anti-doping code that if an athlete gets caught using drugs, they will get suspended for two years. In 1988, Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal …show more content…
And if their bodies are still developing, they may be at risk for harmful health effects. In 2004, a Newsweek article said that an estimate of 300000 teens between the eight and twelfth grades had tried steroids so that they could improve in sports such as football or track and field. But steroids can interfere with the natural process of puberty. For boys, the amount of testosterone they are receiving, they can have pattern baldness and violent mood swings, and may cause them to stop producing its natural testosterone. This may cause males to develop female characteristics like breasts and a high voice. For girls, they may become more masculine and develop facial hair and a deep
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.
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
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
As the use of performance enhancing drugs is becoming more popular amongst athletes, many of them do not understand the risks involved in taking these drugs. Many people are looking for a quick way to build muscles, or to get stronger the fastest way possible. Using these performance aids may very well be a quick fix for many athletes, but taking the drugs is unethical and dangerous. Using special drugs to boost an athlete’s performance is degrading to sports and to the athlete, but after they stop using the drugs and lose some strength, you become
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.
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
Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, and Lance Armstrong are all athletes that have even been accused of or admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. Many associate the word Performance Enhancing Drugs or steroids to athletes, which is actually a common misconception. PEDs are substances that are used to improve any form of activity performance in humans and since 776 B.C.E, people have been taking them. The Greeks first used them in the Olympic games to gain an advantage over the other professionals competing. Around 100 A.D., Roman Gladiators also used stimulants to prevent fatigue and improve the fight’s intensity. The act of taking these drugs really started in 1904 when every Olympic team developed their own formula, which mainly consisted
If an Olympic athlete on a team uses performance-enhancing drugs and then found guilty, the entire team becomes disqualified and must return any medals obtained. Performance-enhancing drugs, PED, spans back centuries in regards to athletes, but the earliest known in American professional teams dates back to 1889. As the years continue, performance-enhancing drugs became high in demand due to wanting a better edge. Even though utilizing PED remains illegal, cases continue surfacing in high school, college, and professional sports. Tests continue to expand and improve in order to catch more substances taken by athletes nowadays. Performance-enhancing drugs tests taken by athletes prove ineffective as a result of known effects, promotion of younger athletes, and ultimately getting caught.
Many professional athletes in this era rely on performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids, to take their athletic abilities to the next level. Over the years, steroid abuse in sports has only gotten worse. This is where the controversy occurs because some people think that the usage of steroids should be legalized in sports, while others do not like that idea. The National Institute on Drug Abuse stated that, “Anabolic steroids are related to the male sex hormones such as testosterone. They promote the growth of skeletal muscle and the development of male sexual characteristics in both males and females” (NIDA). This is a brief definition explaining what anabolic steroids are and what they do. Anabolic steroids were first developed in the 1930’s in order to treat a condition in which the testes produced an insufficient amount of testosterone for normal growth and development. Shortly after, lab tests revealed that steroids were very helpful in the growth of muscle tissue. This lead bodybuilders and athletes to use steroids. Steroids are used by athletes in order to improve performance, build lean muscle mass, and increase strength and speed. There are many opinions on whether steroids should be legalized in sports or not. Some people argue that they provide an unfair advantage between athletes, stating that they should be banned. Others argue that steroids don’t provide athletes with skills, emphasizing that athletes achieve them on their own and not with the help of
Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) cause heart problems, deformities, and sometimes death. Steroids are just one type of the dangerous PEDs the world has. Steroids can be anabolic, produces muscle growth, or synthetic, man made (Mayo Clinic Staff). Anabolic effects in men include forming breasts, baldness, shrunken testicles, infertility, impotence, and many more that can be serious and lead to cancer (Mayo Clinic Staff). Anabolic effects in women include a deeper voice, increased body hair, baldness, and infrequent or absent periods, which could lead to infertility (Mayo Clinic Staff). Anabolic steroids cause acne, tumors, liver failure, high blood pressure, and circulatory problems in both men and women (Mayo Clinic Staff). Another type of steroid is synthetic, or man
Athletes who take drugs and get drug tested can always get away with it that’s why if an athlete is going to get tested for drugs they should have more then one test like a blood doping test which increases the blood’s ability to carry oxygen. This can have a direct impact on the measurement of a person’s aerobic capacity, this drug testing is one of the more effective ways to test athletes if they have taken drugs and played sport at a competitive level. Many athletes take drugs and get away with it and don’t get caught for using drugs at a competitive level of competition.
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
Currently it is an estimated that at least 6.67 percent of high school seniors in the United States have tried steroids, which is 500,000 males between the ages of 17 and 18 (Anabolic Steroids). The pressure of steroids on teenagers is constantly drilled into their heads because they associate increased strength with perfection. Teenagers are under immense pressure to be perfect. Kids are pressured to do well in school, sports, and any other activities that they are participating in. Anything other than the best is unacceptable and failure which strikes and leads to disrespect. Failure has the sole purpose of tearing people from their self confidence and lending them to be insecure, questioning their abilities and themselves. It does
While using prohibited substances gives athletes the chances to do better and makes competition exciting and pleasant, using banned substances such as PEDs should be illegal in professional sports because using performance enhancing is not only extremely hazardous for human body but also against the laws of sport. In addition, athletes are punished if they apply prohibited drugs to their bodies. Moreover, they may lose their medals after the competition, if their samples are positive. For example, Ben Johnson, who is the Canadian sprinter, was the biggest drug cheater in the history (“Doping in Sport”, 2015). After the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, his samples were positive due to anabolic steroids (“Doping in Sport”, 2015). Even though, Johnson