Why Bodybuilders Use Steroids

1244 Words3 Pages

Anabolic Steroid is a synthetic version of the male hormone. Anabolic Steroid was first created in the early 1930s by scientist to help treat males with low amount of hormones. During World War II the artificial form of testosterone was used to help malnourished soldiers to gain weight and improve performance (Center for Substance Abuse Research, 2013). After the war ended, athletes started to use steroids when they entered competitions. In the 1956 Olympics, Soviet athletes were performing at high levels. After learning about the athletes, American Physician, Dr. Zeigler, created a more selective form of anabolic steroid (CESAR, 2013). After a more selective form of anabolic steroids were created, steroids became popular among Olympic, Professional, …show more content…

But there are still some who use steroids because of their health problems. The most common users these days that are athletes are bodybuilders. The reasons why bodybuilders use steroids are for making their physical appearance . Most bodybuilders use steroids because steroids help change their appearance that can not be done naturally. Also bodybuilders on the heavier side use steroids to help them lose fat at a faster rate (True Natural Bodybuilding, 2008). Another big sport where athletes used steroids was baseball. During the late 80s there was an increase of baseball player using steroids. Some of the early and popular users were Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. According to ESPN (2012), after the use of steroids Mark McGwire’s home run total increase by a significant amount, so did Sosa (ESPN, 2012). In 2001 another popular player named Barry Bonds made a bigger name for himself by hitting 73 home runs in one season. Bonds broke McGwire’s record of 70, the breaking of this record got people to wonder if Bonds was using steroids. In 2003, a nutritional supplement firm was targeted by federal agents for distributing undetectable steroids to athletes (ESPN, 2012). During this whole debacle, more names of player who used steroids were released, one of the name that was on the list was Barry Bonds. After this investigation, the commissioner of Major League Baseball created a policy that made …show more content…

The first signs of use of steroids happened during the 1954 Olympics. The Soviets used steroids during the weightlifting championships, Soviet doctors admitted that his athletes were given testosterone injection (Association Against Steroid Abuse, n.d). In the late 1960’s the use of steroids gain steam in the Olympics, the East German athletes started to use steroids in an attempt to win more gold medals (AASA, n.d). In 1975, Anabolic Steroids were added to the list of banned substance by the International Olympic Committee (ProCon, 2013). One year later, athletes were participating in the Olympics were tested for anabolic steroids (ProCon, 2013). Over the next 10 to 20 years there have been many incidents of athletes taking steroids during the olympics and getting their medals taken away. A famous incident was during the 1988 Olympic games, Ben Johnson, a Canadian sprinter, was stripped of his gold medal after testing positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid (ProCon, 2013). The most recent American Olympian that used steroids was Marion Jones. Marion Jones was a track star that used steroids during the 2000 Olympic games, in 2007 she admitted to using steroids and was stripped of her gold medals (ProCon, 2013). The results of Jones admitting her use of steroids lead to her sentencing of 6 months in prison for lying to a court and deceiving federal investigators (ProCon, 2013). The results of these

Open Document