Fourth quarter, three seconds left, tie game. Bodies exhausted and sweat all over. Ball in hand and the shot goes up. Swoosh, and the crowd goes wild! The intensity in the arena is insane and the fans all cheer out. This is what all athletes dream of. Playing the sport that they love and getting paid to do it, but how can a professional perform at the top of their game and have supporting fans if they waste everything away on drugs. They have people who look up to them as role models and they get paid to perform. The sport is their life and also supports others. Non-professional athletes are not held to this standard however and should be allowed to do as they please. Although some drugs can be seen as damaging to the health of individuals, especially athletes, some drugs can be used in other ways. However the main problem of drugs isn’t the use of the drug but the abuse. People become addicted to the substance and tend to rely on it rather than occasional use. Someone such as an athlete should not be addicted to something so life consuming as a drug. The lack of self-control with athletes towards the drugs has become a concerning social problem. Those who watch sports or look up to athletes have noticed the great disappointment when the drugs affect their body in many ways so professionals should be held to a higher standard than high school athletes. “High school athletes are not under contract, they do not get paid, and they don’t have social expectations. Professional athletes are expected to treat their bodies a certain way and drugs interfere with that. A high school player is without expectations and they should be able to decide for themselves what they do. Whether drugs cause enough harm to interfere with an athlete’s fu... ... middle of paper ... ...Top List Of NBA's Most Valuable Teams." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. dollar-knicks-and-lakers-top-list-of-nbas-most-valuable-teams/>. "Drug Abuse & Addiction." Drug Abuse and Addiction: Signs, Symptoms, and Help for Drug Problems and Substance Abuse. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. nt.htm>. "Opinion L.A." Student Drug Testing Doesn't Work [Blowback]. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. . "Parents, Experts Divided on School Drug Testing." Msnbc.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. childrens_health/t/parents-experts-divided-school-drug-testing/>.
Performance enhancing drugs have been a longstanding problem in sports. It not only deteriorates the honesty of the game, but also can have broader social affects that one may not even realize. The use of performance enhancing drugs is especially apparent in Major League Baseball. This problem can be traced back to the 1980’s when baseball was facing one of its first “dark periods”. During the 1980’s Major League Baseball was experiencing a home run drought. Home run totals were down as far as they had been since Babe Ruth, and fans were seemingly becoming bored with the sport. The lack of home runs was a growing concern for players whose salary relied on home run totals. Players needed to find a quick way to boost their power and performance in order to keep the sport alive and to keep bringing in their paychecks. This desire for fame and fortune introduced steroids into Major League Baseball in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Home run totals jumped tremendously during these decades and players were willing to risk being caught using illegal substances in order to shine above the rest. New idols and role models started to sprout up from these outstanding home run statistics and young children started to take notice. This all came tumbling down when these new idols and role models who were making the big bucks and hitting the ball out of the park tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Here lie the affects of a growing social problem in sports. These famed athletes become walking advertisements and promotions for the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports. The influence professional athletes have over aspiring young athletes is very powerful and these roles models make it seem acceptable to use performance ...
Marcovitz, Hal. How Serious a Problem Is Drug Use in Sports? San Diego: Reference Point Press, 2013. Print.
The use of illegal substances in sports is a trendy topic in today’s society. In the last few years a copious amount of players have been under the spotlight of substance abuse, which led to a punishment for their actions. Andrew Sullivan wrote an article in the year 2004 called “In a Drugged-up Nation, the Steroid Sports Star is King”, in which he illustrates how these “pharmaceuticals” have revolutionized sports around the world but mostly in America. These drugs have had a large influence in the overall performance of the players, even if it the use of drugs is “often denied or simply overlooked”(Sullivan 1), it will lead to a lack of judgment in what is right and what is wrong.
Athletes put their lives in danger by using performance enhancement drugs. They use these drugs to gain physical advantages for their sporting events. These methods have been around for thousands of years. According to research, “In ancient Greece, Olympic athletes would ingest huge portions of meat that contained testosterone and creatine before they competed. They would also consume large quantities of alcoholic beverages and lamb testicles” (“Steroids”). Today, sportspersons have a drug policy due to health hazards, violence and incapability’s of normal performances. From lamb chops to steroids, many athletes are willing to destroy their bodies to become “popular” legends.
In all areas of sports, professional, college, and even high school, there is widespread illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. Although there are many reasons for athletes to choose to use these drugs, the cost of such use, both to the athlete and to society can be extraordinarily high. It is important to understand why performance-enhancing drugs are used and what are the consequences of their use to the athlete and society.
It is NFL Sunday and you are ready to see some of your favorite athletes to go head to head on the grid iron. However, you notice something a little different your favorite athlete seems to be more aggressive and his body has changed substantially. That famous athlete that you know and adore was caught for taking performance enhancing drugs that was the reasoning for your unanswered questions about his odd transformations. Bigger, better, stronger each professional athlete tries to achieve that when they are preparing to compete in their sport, but there are some that get a little help to be better, bigger, and stronger. These athletes use performance enhancing drugs; performance enhancing drugs are a man-made or synthetic version of testosterone. Someone who takes the performance enhancing drug illegally will likely gain weight muscle and get stronger. The athletes will love the result they are getting from taking the performance enhancing drugs and would want more and that is when this synthetic drug can become harmful. The performance enhancing drugs can cause many major side effects and the most severe is death. That is why athletes should think twice about taking performance enhancing drugs because strength, endurance, and energy is not worth all the side effects that come with taking the illegal substance. The athletes who risk their lives just to be better at their sport is not beneficial in the long run.
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.
Baseball is cleaning up its image with a new drug testing policy implemented for the baseball season. The new agreement between the players, the owners, and Major League Baseball to test for performance enhancing drugs is a vast improvement over the previous deal. Although enhancing drug seem trivial, it is in fact crucial of today’s concern over the enhancing drug plenty of room for those who want to cheat. “ I am an athlete and the I think performance enhancing drugs are trivial because affected by the use of illegal drugs, raises concerns about ethics and morality in the world of baseball”. Let’s face it; using performance enhancing drugs is cheating.
Certain sports quickly come to mind when we think of performance-enhancing drug use. We think of bodybuilders and weightlifters when drug use is mentioned. But not many would list track and field as a sport in which performance enhancing drug use is prominent. "What seems clear, however, is that the use of performance enhancing drugs is a problem mainly for the athletes of track, field and swi...
We watch football players tackle and shove each other, risking brain or spine damage. We watch volleyball players diving head first to hit the ball back to the opponent. We watch baseball players running head first into fences, sliding into bases, just to make a catch or play. But what we don't understand is why-- why do they use drugs? Why do they feel the need to drug themselves up for one game? Well, it may be as simple as the fact that they don't want to risk injury or feel the pain as strongly if they do get injured. “Given the true problems in our society, should we be investing federal money and angst over professional athletes trying to make themselves better and their teams better, and in the process making their sports more interesting? Don’t we watch professional sports to see superhuman effort and talent? We ask players to run head first into fences to make catches, and to risk brain or spinal damage while making tackles, but we cringe at the idea of them sticking a thin needle into a vein.”(Souhan). We watch athletes almost die or get seriously injured during a game, but we cannot stand the thought of them even shooting up. We don't want drugs to be used at all in sports, but they are so common everywhere now that the fans don’t really care anymore, or at least they seem like they
For any young man or woman dreaming of making a living out of professional sporting, the superstars of their respective sports are always looked up to, the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports by these role models has led many young athletes
Every athlete dreams of becoming the best player in their sport. For most athletes, this dream was created in their childhood watching their favorite player perform at great levels to achieve success. Most athletes will stop at anything to achieve success, even if that means breaking the rules. An athlete whether the biggest, fastest, or strongest, will always look for something that will give them and extra edge over everybody else, even if that means performance enhancing drugs. With new records being broken day by day, I believe performance-enhancing drugs should be legal in all professional sports.
People think that all drugs are bad. However, they can enhance their performance.They really really can enhance the entire performance in front of the coaches, fans, players, and the other teams out there in the world. The real question is, what is a drug? “A drug is a chemical substance that, when absorbed into the body, can alter normal bodily function. Many drugs have been banned in sport if they are deemed to provide an unfair advantage, pose a health risk, or are seen to violate the ‘spirit of sport’.The use of banned drugs by athletes is referred to as ‘doping’. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), and more recently, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have been leading the way in the battle against drugs in sport.( University of Ulster). Why do athletes that are even role models take drugs? Most athletes take drugs to enhance their physical performance in an attempt to prevent them falling behind other competitors, even if it does mean damaging their health and ri...
“With so many grave risks, are the perceived benefits worth it?’ Today there are performance enhancing drugs being used in every sport, professional or not. The method to find proof is continuing to get harder and harder even when testing has increased.
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 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, recreatio9nal 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. Drug use has led to an increased number of deaths and suspensions of athletes. Also, if this continues all athletes someday will have to choose whether to compete at a world-class level and take drugs, or compete at a club level and be clean. In sports, athletes, coaches and trainers will try their best to find a way to reach the top level. They not only search for a way to enhance performance...