Some athletes are willing to go to extremes to win. In recent decades, this extreme has been using performance enhancing drugs. Many see these means as wrong and unfair to other athletes, so many organizations and schools have implemented mandatory drug tests. These drug test help remove the cheating athletes and provide a more balanced playing field for other athletes. There are some people who see these tests as violating or unjust. Most of their concern comes from a lack of know of what performance drugs are and do and how the drug testing is administered and used. It is believed that the use of performance enhancing drugs can be traced back all the way to ancient times. “However in modern times, the systematic testing of athletes for performance enhancing drugs did not begin until 1968 with testing for stimulants such …show more content…
What should and shouldn’t be considered a performance enhancing drug is often debated. Performance enhancing drugs do things such as increase energy, create muscle easier, numb the feeling of pain, and generally give an athlete a leg up in competition. Though they can be considered performance enhancing drugs, some allowed substances are protein, glucosamine, ribose, creatine, glutamine, and b-vitamins. These are mostly found in health food stores and are generally used to improve the athlete's overall nutrition or health. Some performance enhancing drugs that are commonly regulated or banned are amphetamines, anabolic steroids, androstenedione, caffeine, ephedrine, erythropoietin, and hemassist. “The NCAA bans the following classes of drugs: stimulants, anabolic agents, alcohol and beta blockers (banned for rifle only), diuretics and other masking agents, street/illicit drugs, peptide hormones and analogues, anti-estrogens and, beta-2 agonists” (NCAA,
Those who believe the use of anabolic steroids should be allowed in professional sports have numerous arguments for those in opposition. Professional sports leagues have tried to stop the use of steroids by drug testing players and punishing those who do not pass. A number of major athletes, such as Lance Armstrong, have been stripped of their athletic accolades due to discoveries of drug use. Despite witnessing the fall of great competitors due to “doping,” people continue to use. Because of unsuccessful attempts at banning the drug, many people believe “it may be time to head in the other direction: legalize performance enhancers” (Smith 1). No matter how many rules and regulations are made against the use of steroids, athletes will continue to abuse the drug in order to get ...
Most drugs can be put into one of the five categories of performance enhancing drugs. Anabolic Steroids are mainly strength builders. They can be available in forms that flush out of your system within a few hours. The most popular of these drugs is the synthetic testosterone. Most people have a one to one ratio of testosterone and epitosterone. Few people have elevated levels of three to one, while the Olympics allow up to a six to one ratio4. According to the Olympic Guidelines, you could take this drug up to the six to one ratio and still participate in the games with the contenders that don't take anabolic steroids. They can't really discourage this because this is still following the guidelines. Another category is EPO, which stands for Erythropoietin. Erythropoietin regulates red blood cell production. The red blood cells deliver the oxygen to the muscles and organs of the body. EPO is mostly used by the long distance runners because of its endurance enhancing qualities.
Performance enhancing drugs affect so many people that don’t even realize it. Fans of the game, coaches, university leaders and of course athletes are the major groups of people that can be affected the most from the usage of performance enhancing drugs. Numerous studies have stated that an athletes drug use in sport could be credited to a complex interaction of personal and environmental factors (Judge). Athletes hold themselves to high standards for themselves or maybe even family members they must provide for. Athlete will do whatever it takes to strive in their sport because in most cases personal success can lead to better opportunities such as the National Football League or maybe even the National Basketball Association. Overall, individuals can be affected in a positive manner through the use of performance enhancing drugs. Furthermore, the use of performance enhancing can do nothing but help athletes. Also, some college athletes need performance enhancing drugs more than others. Not every athlete comes from a well provided family and knowing that can plaque athletes to where they’ll do whatever it takes to be successful. With this in mind it would totally be unfair if only one or a couple of athlete used enhancing drugs however if every athlete were granted the right to use performance enhancing drugs there
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.
Performance enhancing drugs are not fair in sports. First off, they are a form of cheating. Most athletes work in the weight room and sacrifice their time. They work hard to use their natural talents and abilities, PED’s give the players an undeserved and unfair edge over his or her peers. “It is not fair to those that are naturally talented or work hard to remain in shape for another to come in and take the spotlight because they have decided to take the easy route” says a individual from Debate.Org. Along with giving the player a trump card, so to speak, it gives the whole team an advantage. Therefore, the whole team or organization is now cheating! “Hard workouts can not have the same benefits as PED’s, this makes the users have an advantage.”
MacAuley, D. (1996, July 27). Drugs in sports. British Medical Journal. Downloaded January 7, 2005 from Western International University online library, Info Trac, http://www.apollolibrary.com/Library/databases.aspx?db=0
In today’s day and age, steroids have plagued the reputation of many sports. It was first presented in Russia and sparked a new era of bigger athletes with no seeming end. Steroids have gotten its way into every sport with usage high school athletes all the way to the pros. Even though there are many effects to the users health, steroid use is through the roof. Because our athletes are bigger and stronger than they were 60 years ago, they feel the need to be the biggest and do not care if there life is on the line. From Lance Armstrong to Alex Rodriquez, also known as A-Roid, our greats have cheated their way to greatness. Although our government has pushed for several laws to cut down from steroid use, they have little to no use. It has been a huge issue in the world of sports and is now getting the attention and recognition it deserves in the media. Steroid use by athletes of all ages are tarnishing their reputation and destroying their lives, and a solution is needed.
Performance enhancing drugs, many think they are illegal substances that athletes use to perform better in their professional sport however; they can be used for medical reasons. One form of performance enhancing drugs that can be beneficial to the medical field is Anabolic steroids: “The main legitimate use of these dr...
The use of performance enhancing drugs pose several threats to an athletes health, gives athletes an unfair advantage, and can bring a lost of spirit and integrity for the sporting event and athlete. In athletics there is a code for the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs referred to as the World Anti-Doping Code. This code is enforced by the World Anti-Doping Agency and reads:
For centuries sports has been the favorite past time and for decades drugs, steroids and Performance enhancing drugs and regular street drugs have been used. In many locker rooms the motto is “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” (Schafer). Over the past decades many see the need to drug test athletes in order to maintain integrity of the sports. Drug testing athletes has to many lawsuits and even has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court many times because some feel that drug testing is an invasion of there privacy. Albiet, drugs have increased the entertainment when watching sports, it has also decreased the sportmanship and integrity. Drug testing is a deterrent that is needed in all sports to decrease the number of unethical players while increasing the integrity of a given sport.
Many wonder how drugs can influence an athlete's performance in sports. Over the past few years, it has become more known and more common for athletes to use drugs to enhance their performance abilities. It has been becoming more common for athletes to overdose on drugs whether it being intentional or accidental. Many athletes who use performance enhancing drugs do not know the consequences or the damage the drugs can do to their body. Most athletes that use performance enhancing drugs are high school students. They believe that because their favorite professional athletes is using the enhancers that they are able to also. Athletes should be drug tested before every game to help reduce the use of drugs.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says that if a substance can make your strength, power, speed, or endurance better it’s a performance-enhancing drug. (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2005) Performance enhancing drugs can be grouped into four categories. (Steve Olivier, 1996) A. A performance-enhancing drug can be described as stimulants such as amphetamines, caffeine, and cocaine.
In sports many people think it is ok to use Performance Enhance Drugs to be the best player of all time.Performance Enhance Drugs are substances used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. For example, Bruce Irvin the defensive end with the seattle seahawks,and Daryl Washington the linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals. It is not just football players , baseball players also like, Cody Stanley from the St. Louis Cardinals. Many people use them, but the end up getting caught and suspended from playing.You are basically cheating your way to fame.People should not use drugs in a sport to become better because,These drugs have an effect on having a long term of health, could lead to overdose, and if you get caught you most
Hundreds of professional athletes across the world have been accused of taking performance enhancing drugs. The use of performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes, or "doping", has been acknowledged as a problem since at least the 1960s. The first use of performance-enhancing drugs has been traced back to the first Olympics in Greece. Scandinavian mythology says Berserkers could drink a concoction prepared from a mushroom, to increase their physical power a dozen times. “We have to make some radical move to get the attention of everyone. Cheaters can't win and steroids have put us in the position that it's OK to cheat.” (Lou Brock, 2009) This quote describes how almost every professional player feels when they know that their opponents are cheating. Performance enhancing drugs should be banned and players should be punished more harshly because it leads to numerous diseases, young athletes would be tempted to take it, and players would be unpredictable and can cause.
Today, drug use in sport has reached enormous proportions in society and is destroying athletics from the ground up. Nowhere is the problem more serious than in professional athletics, where athletes, coaches and trainers misuse drugs in search of ways to improve performance. Many athletes fail to take their time when making the decision whether to use drugs to their advantage. Unfortunately, athletes may use drugs for therapeutic indications, recreational or social reasons, as muscular aids or to mask the presence of other drugs during drug testing. But the safety of the athlete's health is being neglected.