Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, performance enhancing drugs have become a religious practice in “the lives of some sport figures.” The use of these supplements have given the user an edge, an edge to perform at maximum capability. Most major athletes all agree on the fact that the competitive drive to win can be quite intense. Besides the satisfaction of personal accomplishment, athletes commonly pursue high hopes of attaining a medal, a college scholarship or the once in a lifetime opportunity to play on a professional team. In such an environment, the use of performance-enhancing drugs has become increasingly common (Athletes & Drug Use). For most athletes, winning at all costs includes taking performance-enhancing drugs. The …show more content…
When blood and muscles are full of oxygen, one's body can perform better than normal. An athlete who uses a performance-enhancing drug to get more oxygen to his or her muscles can perform for longer periods of time at optimum level. A third reason an athlete would choose to use supplements is to stimulate the body (Athletes & Drug Use). The reasons athletes need to keep their body stimulated are to reduce fatigue, gain assertion, and maintain aggression (Athletes & Drug Use). It is really not much different from a person drinking coffee in the morning to perk up. One final reason an athlete would use performance-enhancing drugs is to mask an injury (Athletes & Drug Use). For example, if a quarterback breaks his toe or sprains his knee during a game, there are two options: one, the quarterback can be taken out of the game or two, the trainer can give the quarterback an injection to take the pain away, allowing the quarterback to return to the remainder of the game. With the reasons for taking performance-enhancing drugs in mind, this essay should mention the many categories of performance-enhancing drugs available on the market today, including steroids, growth hormone stimulants, pain killers, and diuretics. Most athletes strive for success in the sense that motivation comes from gaining college scholarships to high-paying positions on professional teams or becoming an Olympic
In sports, the competitive drive to win can be very intensive between athletes. Winning in the game usually brings rewards to athletes both financially and psychologically. Such temptations and the consecutive pressures faced by athletes to excel in the sporting events, attempts to achieve a rival edge especially when the application of performance enhancing drugs by athletes in sports activities has becoming a new trend and relatively common. Performance enhancing drugs are used so athletes could achieve better results with least efforts, even as their health and their athletic careers will be placed in danger. That explains why athletes, sports people and body builders turn to performanc enhancing drugs.
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
The competitive drive to win at all cost is fierce among athletes. Winning at all cost often includes using one of many performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids. Many athletes use performance enhancing drugs, like steroids, to achieve higher goals and set higher records than other drug-free successful athletes. Although athletes are performing at higher levels when using such drugs, what is the cost? Finally anabolic steroids should remain banned from sports because their use results in many harmful side effects; because their use violates sports regulations, and because their use can cause death.
Many athletes are particularly trusting with regards to performance boosters because many of them are desperate to be the best at their respective sport. At the professional level, where athletes must perform well to keep their jobs, many are desperate to do whatever it takes to continue to compete. In their book Death in the Locker Room, authors Bob Goldman, Patricia Bush, and Ronald Klatz discuss this immense pressure that athletes feel to use these drugs. These authors explain how players often place this pressure on themselves because of an overwhelming desire to become famous, adored athletes. To investigate this urge, Goldman and his colleagues performed a study on 198 elite athletes, where the authors asked the athletes if they
Abstract: With the increase of competition has also come the need to become bigger and stronger than the opponent. The use of steroids among athletes has caused the focus of the game to change. No longer does an athlete want to win by doing their best, but they want to become bigger and have an advantage over the opponent. Ultimately, all athletes feel that they need to use performance-enhancing drugs to compete at the same level. Despite all of the warnings and information on performance-enhancing drugs, athletes continue to use them and overlook the potential health risks associated with steroids.
Drugs in professional sports has become a problem ever since the 1960s. Whether it is a performance enhancing drug, a recreational drug, alcohol or anything along those lines, drug consumption among professional athletes has become more common over time. Along with drug usage by professional athletes comes the health consequences, punishments and or treatment. The penalty professional athletes face for drug consumption should correspond to each drug consumed accordingly.
Famed writer Grantland Rice once wrote, “When the great scorer comes to mark against your name. He'll mark not won or lost but how you played the game” (World of quotes, 1). That buoyant attitude of selflessness and heart has slowly diminished throughout the course of time. Now, George Allen’s booming voice, former coach of the Washington Redskins, runs throughout head of America, “Only winners are truly alive. Winning is living. Every time you win, you’re reborn. When you lose, you die a little” (Harris, 67). It is with this frame of mind that athletes are pushed beyond the edge of reason. Although peer pressure and pressure from coaches are central reasons why one may use steroids, most users begin using in order to improve their self image or excel in sports. Ethics, integrity, and legality aside, some athletes will stop at nothing to attain “that extra edge”.
The issue over steroids and other performance enhancer drugs has been a recent topic in the sports world. The debate over whether or not to punish those who have been caught using has been a major topic recently, as well as the legalization of these drugs. When arising the question of whether or not to legalize steroids, many positive and negative factors are brought to the table, and in effect could change various aspects of our normal day lives.
The topic for my stakeholder research paper is performance enhancing drugs. My research is the affects of performance enhancing drugs on athletes and how it affects society. The stakeholders for the research paper are the professional athlete, the college athlete, governing bodies and the fan. The effects of drug use on the professional athlete can cost them their career and also their lives. The college athlete wants to become the fastest or the biggest and nevertheless don’t view performance enhancing drugs as dangerous. Sports governing bodies in the United States have taken action towards controlling the use of performance enhancing drugs. However there is the fan that will still idolize the top athletes even though they use
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
The sports world is filled with endless competition with everyone trying to be the absolute best, so is greatness worth risking their own life? With the constant push from coaches, family members, fans, and even themselves, it is no wonder that athletes sometimes experiment with performance enhancers. There are many different types of Performance Enhancing Drugs, and each kind has different effects on the human body. There are many different categories of Performance Enhancing Drugs, a few include; Anabolic steroids which unnaturally build muscle at a much more rapid rate, Stimulants which can improve athletic performance and endurance while decreasing fatigue, and Painkillers which can allow an athlete to perform
The growing issue of performance-enhancement drugs in American sports today brings about an image that all performance drugs are unhealthy. However, not all performance enhancement drugs are hurtful. The real issue of performance drugs is medical need versus physical want. Moreover, performance-enhancement drugs should still be allowed but with restrictions.
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.
Throughout sports history, banned substances, also known as “performance enhancing drugs” have been used in sport by athletes in order to attain artificial improvement of physical output, however, these PED’s can cause great harm on one’s health. The use of PED’s are mainly being used at the professional level, (MLB, NFL, NBA), but we have not been able to get a full understanding of the use of banned substances at the amateur level of sports.
Growing up we all had our dreams of winning the gold medal in an Olympic event, scoring that game winning basket, being a prize fighter, or hitting the homerun with bases loaded in a World Series. We imagined the feeling of success and glory but we also realized that few do accomplish such. Seeing such deeds are what creates our desires, determination and goals. The athletes that achieve such give us our heroes to aspire to attain such levels. We want the future generation of athletes to have these same dreams, goals and hopes of success that we grew up with. But are our current athletes the type of heroes we want our children and young athletes to look up to? Performance Enhancing Drugs are becoming the norm for many of our athletic heroes and modern day headlines are expounding on the wide spread usage among our elite athletes. Some authors such as Michael Lavin in “Sports and Drugs: Are the Current Bans Justified?” states that the expectations and demands placed upon today’s athletes are much greater than in the past and this pressure leads to using enhancements. Professional athletes are now paid large salaries so that more expectations are made of their abilities than may be achievable with natural workouts and practice of the past. There is pressure to stay in the game