Seven muscle-bound sprinters all standing at the starting block, the hot sun beating down on them and sweat dripping off their faces, this is the moment they all have been waiting for. The gun is fired and the sprinters are off, 100 meters and 9.79 seconds later, Ben Johnson crossed the finish line, he is the new world champion and became the fastest men in history. Within hours Johnson tested positive for the use of performance enhancing drugs which are illegal, he was stripped of his gold medal, world record, and banned from the sport. Many competitive sports banned the use of performance enhancing drugs because they are negative to the players and the sport. Therefore, the use of performance enhancing drugs, also known as PED’s, should continue to be illegal because it is harmful to the athletes and creates a …show more content…
As a result of taking PED’s can lead to serious health problems such as heart failure, blood clots, deaths, and much more. In addition to deaths caused by PED’s, Claire Squires a 30 year old female runner collapsed a mile away from the finish line during the London marathon and died two hours later. Her death was caused by PED’s which sped up her heart rate. The doctor said that “she had taken a supplement containing DMAA combined with extreme physical exertion lead to her death”(William). This shows that it is not just the major athletes taking these drugs but also people like you and me. In addition to health problems caused by PED’s, the famous British cyclist, Tommy Simpson died during the 13th stage of the Tour de France. Simpsons death was caused by excess amounts of PED’s which increased his heart rate. Simpson went by the moto “if it takes ten to kill you, take nine and win”(Simpson).
Sporting competitions either nationally or internationally have regulations to prohibit or inhibit the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED’s). There been a case for the lifting of these regulations to create sporting fair across all types of people. Craig Fry, an advocate for the use of performance enhancing drugs in elite sporting competitions and author of “Bring Truth into Play by Saying Yes to Drugs in Sport”, is an Australian health social sciences researcher with training in psychology, public health, and applied ethics. Fry testifies that the positives that would result in supervised PED use in elite competitions would create a more fair and balanced playing field. However Craig Fry’s claim is invalid, not only are there a multitude of health risks continually being discovered, the use of performance enhancing drugs would diminish the spirit of sporting and create international-legal catastrophes with differentiation in the creation of new drug substances.
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
A number of prominent athletes have recently experienced a 'fall from grace,' because of the revelation that they used performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps the most famous example of this phenomenon is Lance Armstrong. In an advertisement for Nike that his former sponsor now no doubt regrets, Armstrong is shown asking the viewer "what am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day." Professional cycling is often cited as one of the sports in which doping is most endemic to its subculture, however a number of professional sports have been embroiled in drug scandals. Because of the many revelations about the number of baseball players who used steroids to get their record-breaking statistics, the 1990s are often called the 'steroid' era of baseball. The Olympic track and field star Marian Jones was stripped of her medals, after finally admitting to the use of performance-enhancing drugs (Lardon 2008). "Despite the health risks, and despite the regulating bodies' attempts to eliminate drugs from sport, the use of illegal substances is widely known to be rife. It hardly raises an eyebrow now when some famous athlete fails a dope test" (Savulescu, Foddy, & Clayton 2004).
In conclusion, it is clearly understand that consumption of PEDs has the negative effects. It can cause
“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
Ben Johnson was one of the first superstar athletes to be caught using steroids and was stripped of his 100m gold medal at the 1988 Olympics. He was eventually banned for life in 1993 for testing positive again (Richardson 2010). Performance enhancing drugs have become widely used since the 1970’s and have only increased in the numbers of athletes using the drugs to up their endurance and perform to their greatest potential. Professionals such as Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, and Hulk Hogan have all been humiliated and are now seen as cheaters after being caught using steroids. It is too late to stop these sports fuelled on drugs because of the large number of athletes using, so why not consider drug use as a
“Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez, all of these baseball players have admitted to the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs)” (“Performance Enhancing Drugs”). “Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris’s 37 year old record of 61 home runs. McGwire hit a total of 70 home runs in 1998. Sammy Sosa also broke Maris’s record with 66 homeruns.” In “2001 Barry Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s home run record by hitting 73”. “In 2009 Sosa, Bonds, and McGwire all admitted to using PEDs during their careers” (“Sports Tarninshed”). Many professional baseball players have admitted to the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs through out their career. Performance Enhancing Drugs have given these players an unfair advantage
Steroids and PED’s are used today in sports to help athletes gain muscle mass and strength. Other athletes use them to boost their athletic performance. Today, about 30 percent of college and professional athletes still use anabolic steroids, 10 to 20 percent of high school athletes use them (Lewis). There are many reasons why steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs shouldn’t be allowed in sports.
“…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
They are like a nasty, lingering virus, performance enhancing drugs continue to infect sports at all the levels. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Mooloolaba Community Forum Association, today, I Brayden Smith am going to discuss the need for further stringent and effective measures to prohibition the use of performance enhancing drugs in the athletics world. Sports men and women who use steroids are cheaters. They use steroids to gain an unfair advantage which violates the basic spirit of competition, sending the wrong message to young athletes and sporting fans. Sporting clubs promote the athletes to play to super human performance, where sometimes this is merely a facade, where we often do not see what is really happening outside of the locker rooms. Like Ben Johnson and Lance Armstrong, some players are utilising PED’s thinking only of the potentially
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.
Since mankind fist started competing in organized sports there has been a race to discover new and better ways to improve an athlete’s capability. These elite athletes are constantly looking for anything under their power that they can do to surpass their competition. However, many times they result in choosing steroids as their mean to improve themselves; a very delicate topic in our society. Us, the spectators, love seeing records being broken and home runs being hit, but when those athletes are caught using PESs (performance-enhancing substances), we do not think twice before accusing him or her of cheating. The general public has no
There are good reasons to allow performance enhancement, to make sport fairer and to narrow the gap between the cheaters and the honest athletes. It would provide a better spectacle, be safer and less coercive” (Foddy) Therefore, with the legalization of PED’s not only would the playing field suddenly be even for all players, it would be at a higher level. Furthermore, athletes on the way up whose entourages don’t yet include savvy physiotherapists and doctors would be less likely to overdose and do themselves harm.
Mike was a good football player in high school and was scouted by division one teams,” but he knew the only reason he was being scouted by these teams was because he was using steroids. So when Mike went to college he continued to use steroids so he could play on the football team. Everyone expected Mike to be able to make it to the NFL. But when he ran out of steroids,’’ everyone noticed that he had barely any muscle then Mike became very sick then later died of liver cancer. This is just one of many stories of athletes who have made the decision to take steroids. For many reasons
‘Olympic track star Marion Jones was sentenced in a federal court to six months in prison.’ (Kelly and Rao, 2008) The reason why Jones was guilty is because of the use of performance enhancing drugs since 1999. More and more famous athletes prove to have used banned drugs to enhance their performance. At the same time, the role that the anti-doping agency is more and more important in the world wide games, such as Olympic Game, Tour de France. Nowadays, whether the performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) should be legalized has sparked a heated debate. However, the use of PEDs is morally wrong and it should be banned in sports. This essay will demonstrate three main points which explain the