Growing up, I looked up to guys like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds. They were some of the best players to ever play the game. In the recent years, it was revealed that these players were taking anabolic steroids throughout their career. I always thought with hard work and dedication, I could be just like them, but that was not possible because they were all cheating to get an edge. Anabolic steroids were added to the list of Class III Substances in the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990. This act makes it illegal to possess anabolic steroids in the United States without a prescription. Congress passed this in hope to avoid the use of anabolic steroids in sports. However, the majority of steroid users are in fact non-competitive weight lifters and non-athletes using steroids specifically for cosmetic purposes. American's have become obsessed with their body image and congress should not hold people back from wanting to look their best.
Steroids are a synthesized version of any natural human hormone like estrogen or testosterone, which is the most commonly produced and used steroid. This practice began in the 1930’s and has been marked as the invention of steroids. Steroids were originally created to treat hormone deficiencies like male hypogonadism (Steroids 101). But steroids were not solely used for these muscle-wasting diseases. Soon after their creation, steroids were administered to the Nazis to increase aggression and strength (Steroids 101). By the 1960’s steroids were being banned by major sports organizations and by the 1990’s congress had passed the Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 1990 (Steroids 101).
One of the biggest arguments that steroids and performance-enhancing drugs have brought up is; shou...
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Major League Baseball (MLB) has widely been regarded as America’s pastime for the longest time, however it is now becoming known as the sport tainted by one thing, anabolic steroids. An anabolic steroid is related to the natural steroid, testosterone. They are able to stimulate growth in the muscle tissue. They usually increase muscle mass and strength. The MLB has created some of the most historic American icons, such as Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Players like them showed us what it was like to play baseball the right way. They played with passion, heart, and above all they had fun playing. Players today in the MLB focus way too much on becoming the best player ever to play. They see what the greats did before them and they want to match them, so they turn to anabolic steroids. An example of this is Alex Rodriguez. In 2003 he tested positive for anabolic steroids because he was “naïve” and couldn’t take the pressure of his expectations of being called the best. He felt the pressure from the game and he turned to steroids. Anabolic steroids are ruining the game of baseball. They are tainting the records and the changing the game for the worse.
Baseball?s reputation has been painted with a red asterisk. The non-medical use of steroids has been banned according to the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990. Many baseball athletes have been caught or presumed illegal users of HGH or Steroids since the act passed in 1990. All these athletes have one thing in common, they want to have an edge or advantage on the game. Some athletes even admit to administering the drug to other athletes and themselves. Jose Conseco testified to personally injecting the steroids into Mark McGuire (Cote).
The issue of performance-enhancing substances in baseball has been mostly present over the past ten years. The reason for players taking steroids is simple, by taking steroids, hitters like Barry Bonds gained more strength to hit better averages and more home runs, while pitchers like Roger Clemens gained better stamina and powerful arms.... ... middle of paper ... ... Steroids are not fair to the players who worked hard everyday to achieve Hall of Fame status, without performance enhancements.
Steroids have become prevalent in baseball, with more players getting involved with them. Although they entered the game through trainer Curtis Wenzlaff in 1992, they have become a big part of the Major League today in 2014. However, players and the game's image suffer when they become caught up in steroids. Some of the best players to ever play the game, including Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire, have been caught up in steroids. These players are supposed to be role models for younger kids, yet when they see their idols using steroids, they are tempted to use them as well.
The era in sports from the late 90s and into the 2000s has often been nicknamed “The Steroid Age” due to the raging use of anabolic steroids and other PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) by professional athletes. The usage of drugs in sports has never been more prevalent during this time, and many people are making it their goal to put an end to the abuse. Influential athletes such as Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Clemens, who were once held as the highest role models to the American people, now watch as their legacies are tarnished by accusations of drug use. The American population, and lovers of sports everywhere, have followed in astonishment through recent years as many beloved athletes reveal their dark secrets. As organizations such as the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) and BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) attempt to halt the use of PEDs, both the drug users and their high-end suppliers work diligently to avoid detection. The use of performance enhancing drugs in recent years has proven to be cancerous to the honesty and competition of modern sports. Although some strides have been made over the past few decades, the use of steroids is in full swing in Major League Baseball, The dangerous side effects of the drugs are often overlooked and many do not realize the message this sends to the youth. The support for halting the usage of PEDs is in need of attention or professional sports will face the loss of all progress made through the past two decades in its war on steroids.
There is a difference between working very hard to see progress and finding an alternative way to see ultimate progress. Most athletes love to work out to get bigger and better at their certain sport, there training for but you also have athletes who would go beyond extra to see improvements while still lifting or training and that extra way is called steroids. It 's a common drug that has its pros for athletes use to improve athletic ability, improves muscular strength and performance. Now, steroids have its cons as well, you could get arrested for using them illegally, can damage organs and veins and also damage your growth. You see, it 's not what athletics aspect, but it has happened even its good or bad. You highly hear that pro sport
Anabolic steroids are a group of muscle building chemicals, which are synthetic versions of the male hormone, testosterone. Developed in the 1930’s, they were prescribed to aid in muscle tissue repair by those who had undergone surgery or had degenerative diseases. Now the patients do not only use them but also athletes. Starting in the 1940’s steroids were introduced into sports. Steroids were one of the main reasons that Russia’s 1952 Olympic weightlifting team came out with pile of medals. With these results other nations thought their competitors should have the same advantage, and the use of steroids spread like wildfire.(NIDA pg 2) But now steroids are illegal to use if not prescribed by a physician, and have been banned by nearly all-athletic organizations, both professional and amateur.
Abstract: Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of edge over their competitors. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite, and that includes injecting supplements into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger, and faster. Steroid use is probably one of the most common drug misuses in sports competition. Athletes found that with anabolic steroids, one could become a better athlete twice as fast. Not until 1975 was the drug first banned from Olympic competition because of the health risks it produced.
Anabolic steroids are drugs containing, or hormone-like substances, that are used to increase strength and promote muscle growth. They were first developed in the 1930s in Europe to treat undernourished patients and to promote healing after surgery. Competitive weightlifters began using steroids in the 1950s as a way to increase their athletic performance. Use gradually spread throughout the world among athletes in other has been estimated that at least one in 15 male high school seniors in the United States--more than a half-million boys--has used steroids. Some are athletes attempting to increase their strength and size; others are simply youths attempting to speed up their growth to keep pace with their peers. In some countries, anabolic steroids are available over the counter. In the United States, a doctor's prescription is necessary.
The intent of this essay is to show that steroids have many negative effects and that steroids, and other natural supplements, should be closely studied by the FDA. This essay will also support the claim that the professional sports industry needs to eliminate steroid use and set a good example for younger athletes.
“Steroids are any type of a large group of fat-soluble organic compounds, as the sterols, bile acids, and sex hormones most of which have specific physiological action” (Dictionary.com). When our bodies are still developing, the effects of steroids can be dangerous and can also be permanent (“Above”). Steroids are made out of substances such as nandrolone, stanozolol, testosterone, fluoxymestrone, and oxandrolone. Sometimes people say when you can’t pronounce something, you probably shouldn’t use it. In the 1940’s testosterone began to be widely used in competitive sports, but the dangers of loading up on testosterone were not yet clear (“History”). Instead of using steroids for a bad reason, there is a medicinal purpose. Cortisteroids can treat arthritis, asthma, lupus and multiple sclerosis, eczema and rashes, and some types of cancer (“Steroids: Medline”). Also, steroids can be used to treat anemia, to improve weight loss due to severe illness, and to treat osteoporosis. Steroids can only be sold to you by a pharmacist f...
My issue over the concern of athletes have been struggling with the usage of steroids has widely spread among athletes and others; not only do steroids give an athlete a hard times but it’s also an unfair advantage to the other athletes and what they’ve accomplish. “Besides making muscles bigger, anabolic steroids may help athletes recover from a hard workout more quickly by reducing the amount of muscle damage during the session” (“Steroids in Sports”,2005). Now a days steroids are everywhere as an athlete. Many males and female young athletes preferably take it because they want to look and feel good when it comes to impressing someone and trying to become someone they look forward too. Young teens and adults try to cheat themselves in the career of their dreams. When it comes to a sport, teen athletes are not aware of what type of consequences may happen to them at the time. It may come to the time where it’s too late to take care of. In other cases, some athletes may like feeling the aggressive they get when they take drugs such as steroids. Athletes shouldn’t take steroids as the harmful health effects of the anabolic steroid in population wise. Many people have had their lives ruined by the use of illegal steroids and yet the desired effects are overwhelming that people tend to forget about the results and consequences that may effect. Athletes on steroids believe taking steroids will enhance their performance, strength, and size without having to put necessary work. These benefits, however, are associated with much short-term and long term risk.
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 not help that kids have role models that choose the easy way to accomplish their goals. It also sends a message to those who admire them that taking certain sacrifices to reach self-goals and standards are very much acceptable. Hard work and determination has become something of the past when it is possible to do the same amount of work and receive results faster if you just take a couple risks. Steroids should not only be banned from sports, but athletes who are found to have used steroids should receive a more distinct and severe punishment. No matter how it is said or defended steroids truly are cheating. Steroids are becoming a substitute for hard work and determination.
It is amazing what athletes will do to achieve higher levels of performance and to sometimes get the extra edge on the competition. Most of the time people do not realize the long-term effects that result from the decisions they make early in life. This resembles the use of steroids in a person’s life.
..., Kjetil K. "Why We Shouldn’t Allow Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sport." Academia.edu. Academia.edu, 1 Apr. 2011. Web. 06 Jan. 2014. .