Why Performance-Enhancing Drugs Are Ruining Sports Essay

Athletes of all ages are always looking for that extra edge to excel in their sport. Living in a world filled with competition, this could be a challenge for certain athletes who want to progress and get to the next level. Many athletes have a strong desire for recognition and fame. Unfortunately, that makes some athletes who are determined to win at any cost, motivated to experiment with illegal substances even knowing the consequences. Being in sports that require significant strength and endurance my whole life, I have had experience with performance enhancing drugs in the past and currently. I believe the safest way to achieve your goals is to train naturally, but many athletes do not have the patience for that and choose to take substances that put their health at risk.

Through experimentation, though, scientists found in lab animals that anabolic steroids could facilitate the growth of skeletal muscles and with this is where the weight lifters and athletes come in to play. Since then over 100 anabolic steroids have been developed and most of them still remain illegal without consent from a doctor. While they were initially created for male related irregularities, they are now finding their way into a woman's body and becoming a part of some women's daily routine.

A tremendously large problem in sports is whether or not athletes should be able to use performance enhancing drugs. To most people, it doesn 't make any sense for athletes to be using them. They have to know what affect it has on their body not only physically, but also mentally. Around the early 2000’s is when all this starting coming up and it has made a dramatic impact on the sports world. The few people who want performance-enhancing drugs in sports don’t worry about the damage they do to athletes’ bodies, but want more excitement in that certain sport. Even though steroid use can drastically enhance the abilities of players and make the sport more fun to watch, it shouldn 't be allowed in any professional sports. They can harm the athlete using them as well as make that specific athlete look like a bad role model and also will create an unfair advantage in the sport they are playing.

The intake of substances to increase physical performance levels has been used ever since 700 B.C. Started by the gladiators who wanted to beef up their game in the vigorous competitions that was held. In that time most forms of cheating were acceptable compared to this day and age; with the continual cycle of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) the user could develop numerous diseases and can alter the body greatly. Although fans want to watch a sport be performed at the highest skill level possible but if it involves the destruction of someone’s health it should be prohibited. Performance enhancing drugs should not be allowed in sports.

One of the most debated topics in all of sports is whether performance enhancing drugs should be allowed. According to the free dictionary, performance enhancing drugs is defined as “Any drug used to gain an advantage in sports. Such drugs may improve endurance or strength or accelerate healing after injury”. Performance enhancing drugs was first acknowledged as a problem in professional sports in 1967 when the international Olympic committee created a medical board due to the heightened use. Today there are seven types of performance enhancers including: stimulants, narcotics, anabolic-androgenic steroids, beta-2 agonists, peptide hormones, diuretics, blood doping. That number might seem small but there is a massive amount of variety within these drugs that is causing more and more athletes every year to use them. Performance enhancing drugs should be illegal because of the unfair advantage, health risks, and the lack of role models that athletes would play.

Any athlete once felt a temptation to take PEDs to improve his physical capabilities. It can be a pursuit of fame on the professional sports level, pressure from government or even coaches. Some athletes do not even know how significantly it can harm their health, considering it as simple pills that can make them stronger. This wrong believing can lead to many consequences how using performance enhancing drugs can affect your life. Using steroids and any other substances can worth your opportunity to compete for a long time or even a complete lose of reputation. However, the biggest consequence is health risk.

Performance enhancing drugs should not be allowed in sports because they damage the purity of the sport. When athletes take performance enhancing drugs to obtain skills, they are taking away from their natural God given talents. The point of an endurance sport like cross-country skiing is to see how rapidly you can cover long distances without collapsing and using performance enhancers will give you more power and more energy which isn’t your natural talent (“The Hastings Center). The essence of a sporting contest is that it should be fairly conducted, with the athletes success or failure being the result of his or her natural talents. Even though skill, strategy, and effort would still play a central role in athletic success, pharmaceutical

Performance enhancing drugs (PED) are a delicate subject in the world today. Many people have opposing views to the topic of steroids in sports. The sports world is invested with people who use these performance enhancing drugs from an early age to increase strength, speed, and overall ability. However, there is positives and negatives to this.

Performance enhancing drugs are commonly abused among athletes, competitors, and body builders. As indicated by Procon.org, the primary known use of performance enhancing drugs occurred in 776 B.C. by the ancient Greeks. Greeks contended in the Olympic Games for prizes and wreaths, however they utilized medications, hallucinogens, and ate animal intestines to increase their performance. Performance enhancing drugs, also known as steroids were absolutely acceptable in 776 B.C., yet they are presently banned in the United States. (procon.org)The purposes behind the ban were because of the physical harm and significant side effects. Even though performance enhancing drugs are banned in sports, they are commonly used by millions of people every day and therefore performance enhancing drugs should be legalized. Performance enhancing drugs should be legalized because of the tremendous benefits and they would decrease drug abuse.

Performance enhancing drugs improve the performance of athletes in sports and/or in the weight room. The wise man Knute Rockne once said, “win or lose, do it fairly.” (Rockne). This quote has a lot of meaning when it comes to sports in the world today. These drugs are an enhancement to muscle growth and energy. Performance-enhancing therapy and drugs have three major negative effects on athletes, which involve cheating, damaging bodies, and bothering others without this advantage.

Performance enhancing drugs are not beneficial for athletes because of legal issues and suspensions, a possibility for an athlete to end their career and ruin their reputation,and long term health risks.

Doping in sports happens all the time around us whether you want to believe it or not. It is also not occurring just in a few sports it is virtually all of them. It happens from cycling in the Tour de France, the World Series in baseball, and to the Olympics, it happens everywhere. The drug that has become very popular throughout the sports community was created in the 1950’s when bodybuilders wanted to gain a new level of muscle mass and more quickly. This drug has made its way through the sports community and it is becoming to the point where it is time we either allow them or do something about it to make it stop. “There are several types of performance-enhancing drugs: anabolic steroids, stimulants, human growth hormone and supplements.”

The use of performance enhancing drugs in sports is consider a problem by many . Performance enhancing drugs are substances used by athletes to improve their performances. Research tells you that performance enhancing drugs cause unfair advantages and health problems towards athletes. In addition, performance enhancing drugs cause athletes to become bad role models . Being bad role models means being a bad influence to kids that look up to these athletes. Performance enhancement is becoming very controversial in the world of sports . This controversy cause personal and societal issues .

Athletes use drugs for a variety of reasons, such as coping with stress or to enhance their quality of performance, and the effects of using performance enhancing drugs can have long term effects on an individual’s life.

What doesn 't kill us makes us stronger right? Well that 's what athletes of this generation believe. They think if steroids or human growth hormones don 't kill us and cause us to become stronger then it 's totally worth it. Performance enhancement drugs are very harmful to a person 's body and can cause huge Problems in an individual 's life. Someone can have just a hint of these substances in their system from that time they tore a muscle and needed that edge to come back stronger. That small amount can cause someone to be accused of doping with performance enhancing drugs, and they can take everything they have worked for and take it away. Athletes think they are smart and can pass these tests or avoid them for long enough, but do not stop to think about what the consequences are for taking them. When athletes today are such idols and looked up to as much as they are, they should set better examples, like donating to charity and helping others instead of breaking rules and being involved in illegal activities. Athletes who have used, or are using these drugs should be stripped of trophies and awards they have won, because they have cheated and do not deserve the title.