Performance Enhancing Drugs: Introduction
The Tour de France is considered the world’s most competitive bicycle race. Each summer top cycling teams from around the world compete in the three-week event, which sends riders on a grueling, multi-stage course through the mountainous countryside of Ireland, France, and Belgium. In 1998, the image of Tour de France cyclists as athletes at the peak of their natural abilities was tarnished by allegations of widespread performanceenhancing drug use among competitors. The “doping” scandal broke a few days prior to the start of the race when a masseuse for France’s Festina team, Willy Voet, was arrested after police found large quantities of anabolic steroids and erythropoietin, or EPO, in his car
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WADA is also investing more of its resources in developing new tests to keep pace with the changing array of drugs that athletes are taking.
Whether or not those who contend that drug tests remain easy to beat will be satisfied by renewed testing efforts remains uncertain. Clearly, however, performance-enhancing drug testing has affected the careers of many elite athletes. Athletes who test positive for drugs at the Olympic level are stripped of their medals and records and are suspended from all competition for two years on the first offense. In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of a gold medal and was later banned from track-and-field competition for life after he tested positive for steroids. At the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Romanian gymnast Andrea Raducan had her gold medal taken away when she tested positive for pseudoephedrine, a stimulant. American shot-putter C.J. Hunter withdrew from competition after it was revealed that he had tested positive four times for the steroid nandrolone. Scores of other athletes were also expelled from the Sydney Games after flunking drug tests. More recently, at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, British skier Alain Baxter was stripped of his bronze medal after testing positive for methamphetamine, although an appeal is pending.
Detection efforts notwithstanding, seeking an edge over one’s opponents has long made the use of
Steroids cannot only affect its users and abusers, but may also affect those who associate with them. In a recent documentary about Lance Armstrong called The Armstrong Lie, it’s revealed of many people who were ruined from trying to cross him. From interviewers, to other cyclists and even his own former teammate Frankie Andreu. Andreu who played a role in the USADA’s investigation of Armstrong’s doping practices by testifying in the case revealed that after doing so a lot of people wouldn’t look at him or even shake his hand because of his allegations and he felt as though he was shunned from the planet. Lance Armstrong mislead and deceived his fans and the world in what is
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.
Over the years, this has been forgotten as people focus only on winning. From 1968 on, hundreds of Olympic athletes have been caught doping. PED’s are considered cheating in today’s sports. Although every athlete is determined to win, PED’s have no place in sports. When athletes resort to using these drugs, the endanger their health and their safety. An example of this is the death of Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen who died in the Olympics from the use of amphetamines which caused him to lose consciousness and fall from his bicycle to his death. Another consequence of PED use is setting a bad example and being a bad role model. In 2007 many fans were let down when Barry Bonds tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Many fans, both young and old, looked up to Barry and were disappointed with his choices. With so many baseball players using performance-enhancing drugs today, the integrity of the game has been lost. The players who use PED’s negatively affect the players who play the game without cheating. One of the worst consequences of all for using PED’s is being suspended or banned. Since the 1960’s, the technology for PED testing has improved and more athletes have been caught, suspended or
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).
For many years sports have played huge roles in human’s everyday lives. From entertainment, political, financial and to actually competing in them. The task for the sportsmen or women, especially in the top rank, is to beat the other competitors and get a good result from it. Here there is a high amount of pressure on many athletes coming from the media, coaches, themselves etc. They have the wanting to do well and achieve their goals and aims so much that some of the athletes turn to performance enhancing drugs. Obviously training for competition is the main thing to do but using drugs is another helper to succeeding. So, to their way of thinking, doping does not seem like cheating it just seems like
The desire to compete — and win — is as old as history itself. From the beginnings of sport, athletes have sought out foods and potions to turn their bodies into winning machines. As early as 776 BCE, the very first Olympic games, there are records of attempts to increase testosterone levels (“Steroid Abuse in Sports”). Ancient Greek wrestlers ate vast amounts of meat to gain muscle mass, and Norse “Berserker” warriors took hallucinogenic mushrooms before battle. The first competitive athletes to be charged for doping, however, were swimmers in 1860s Amsterdam. Doping of all kinds, from caffeine to cocaine to anabolics quickly spread to other sports (“Anabolic Steroids, a Brief History”).
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
Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds were 2 very good athletes. In fact, “Barry Bonds has the record of most home runs” (Geron) and “Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France 7 times” (“Lance Armstrong Biography”). But, these two amazing athletes both have something in common. They both used PEDs. These people would not have performed as well as they did without the help of PEDs. Suzie Abernethy said, “I did not look at Lance Armstrong the same after I found out he was doping.” Without drug
Almost every sport has had a steroid disaster, however the correlation between baseball and steroids is greater known than any other sport. Barry Bonds is the most effective example, for those who don't know, he broke the home run record of 73 home runs in a single season and was inducted into the hall of fame. Barry Bonds took anabolic steroids, there is no question the court has documents and tests stating that three types of performance enhancing substances were found in his tests. (barry) Most people were concerned about how to view his all time record, whether or not any of his achievements should remain, because knowingly or not he did this with chemical support. An athlete on performance enhancing drugs broke one of the most honored records in baseball history, not only offended some and troubled Barry Bonds’ accomplishment but also tons of people’s faith in baseball. Baseball is making an attempt to fix the reputation left by Bonds and many other athletes, but this legacy from the steroid era of baseball stands as testimony to some significant mistakes by both athletes and policy makers in the MLB. Ben Johnson, track and field, was an amazing competitor in the 1988 Olympics. He dashed across the track with a record breaking time of 9.79, soon after being awarded he was found to have taken a supplement of stanozolol. He was stripped of his gold medal, and taken out of the Olympics for good. Lastly, Cyclist Lance Armstrong, wasn't able to
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
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.
Many people believe that drug use in professional athletics is not a serious problem, however it is more widespread and serious than people think. In professional athletics the use of drugs is looked upon as somewhat of a serious problem, but is also very discrete and low key. Every once in a while one might see a prominent figure in a certain sport being reprimanded for the use of some outlawed drug, however this is just one of the many who happened to get caught. Athletes today seem to find no moral problem with using performance-enhancing drugs, or in other words cheating. Also many of them feel that because they are "stars" there should be no repercussions for their illegal activity.
More and more, of our society views winning more important than itself. Success in competition brings status, popularity, and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today’s athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will make them winners. Unfortunately, the drugs of today are caught up in the high stakes competition frenzy. Of this reality, teenage use of performance improved drugs is growing ever more popular. In colleges and in the professional league a lot of people are doing drugs and its ruining their health and life. Also, if some teenagers take performance drugs they are making them better than everyone else giving themselves an advantage over everyone else which is cheating, so why should they get money