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doping in sports debate
doping in sports debate
research paper on performance enhancing drugs in sports
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Professional athletes are role models to the American children across the Nation. Professional athletes must follow ethical standards to play fairly in their sport. This means that players must compete without the assistance of performance enhancing drugs such as steroids (Tynes, 2006). Yet, professional athletes choose to cheat by taking illegal substances, which results in the death of some players and a wide variety of health problems. The Federal Government realized that the use of anabolic steroids is a form of cheating and defrauds the players and fans of “real” competition. As a result, for the concern of the athletes’ health and concern for the ethical standards of the game played, the Anabolic Steroid Act of 1990 (ASCA) was enacted (Tynes, 2006). The ASCA was passed to help the growing concerns of the wide spread of harmful substances that could cause long- term effects (Tynes, 2006). The ASCA made it illegal to take an unapproved substance while playing a professional sport. This research paper will examine professional athletes who participated in the major leagues and Olympic Games who used steroids to defraud the Major Leagues Business and Olympic Associations to gain fame and fortune. The paper will examine the BALCO scandal (CNN.com, 2014), where many professional athletes admitted to taking steroids to improve physical sports performance. The BALCO scandal "outs" players from the American National sports leagues to Olympic competitive sports. A cover up of drug use led to not just a few but many players who chose to use steroids to improve their game. The case went to the courts and left many players to tell the ugly truth about other professional players. In some cases, the players denied responsibility and ... ... middle of paper ... ...BILITY OF THE LEAGUES?. Marquette Sports Law Review, 17(2), 651-678. Thompson, T. (2007) Giambi admits he took steroids. DailyNews. New York. Tynes, J. (2006) Performance Enhancing Substances: Effects, Regulations,and the Pervasive Efforts to Control Doping in Major Leagues. Journal of Legal Medicine. 27:493-509. Unknown Author (2014) Barry Bonds convicted of obstruction of justice in performance-enhancing-drugs case. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. USAToday (2007) BALCO Investigation Timeline. USA TODAY SPORTS ONLINE NEWSPAPER. Retrieved from: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/balco-timeline.htm USAToday (2007) Mitchell Report Timeline. USA TODAY SPORTS ONLINE NEWSPAPER. Retrieved from: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2007-12-13-mitchell-report-timeline_N.htm Wikipedia (2014) BALCO Scandal. Retrieved from Wikipedia.com on March 14, 2014.
Rodrigo Villagomez, in the essay, “The Designer Player,” has an opposite view of steroids in professional sports as Peter F. Martin in the essay, “Destroyed.” He argues that the status of athletes is to be entertainers; therefore, they should use steroids. “Baseball is a multibillion-dollar entertainment industry” (Villagomez 586). Baseball is not just America’s pastime, it is more than that. Players are under pressure to be their best. To achieve their goals, they try out steroids. “Because of this pressure, more professional baseball players are turning to performance-enhancing drugs, specifically steroids, to aid them in their quest for greatness” (Villagomez 587). Athletes play a sport to win even if it means winning by using steroids.
Wright, H., (2009). The ten most notorious steroid users in sports history. Retrieved April 29,
Baseball has always been known as “America’s Favorite Pastime”. Over the past decade, the game America knows and loves has been exposed as a game full of cheaters. Major League Baseball(MLB) has had over one hundred players test positive for performance-enhancing substances over the past fifteen years. Performance-enhancing substances increase a player’s ability to produce better stats to help his salary. The past fifteen years of baseball have contained dirty play by some of the best players to ever play the sport. Kids all over America look at these athletes as role models. The money hungry players proceed to send a terrible message to fans of the game by taking drugs to succeed. After commissioner Bud Selig cracked down on steroid use in 2005, several baseball player’s legacies have been ruined due to steroid allegations. Players are even being charged with perjury by lying to congress over steroid use to protect their reputation. Steroids in baseball need to stop immediately before the game is ruined. Steroids are not fair to the players who play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, without syringes. Steroids are ruining the fairness of the game of baseball and the credibility of the athletes participating. These days, if someone hits fifty home runs in a season, everyone thinks they are on the “juice”. “The Steroid Era” and Bud Selig have ruined baseball’s image as a clean and fair game.
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 ...
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 ...
Jost, Kenneth. "Performance-Enhancing Drugs: An Overview." Performance Enhancing Drugs. Ed. Louise Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Rpt. from "Sports and Drugs." CQ Researcher 14 (23 July 2004): 616-622. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
Steroids are ruining sports in the United States, and they are also going to ruin future athletes if the United States does not put a stop to it. Many young athletes in the United States are taking performance enhancing drugs because they see that professional athletes are doing it and getting results. These teenagers are using steroids because they want to look muscular and fit, but they are not aware of the negative effects steroids have on their bodies. Young athletes do not know that they are not only risking their careers but also their bodies. Steroids may make a person look muscular and fit, but at the same time, it is ruining their heart. Steroids also cause people to act differently and do foolish things like using other drugs. Parents can prevent steroid use by teaching their children about it at a young age and staying involved in their children’s sport lives. Steroids have ruined professional careers. They ruined Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds’ careers and almost ruined Alex Rodriguez’s career. Professional athletes use steroids to improve their performance which is cheating. The game is not fair if someone is performing better by using drugs, and everybody should be performing with what they got. There are many different ways to achieve what they want in fair and healthier way. Many high school athletes are using steroids in the United States. They are not doing it under a doctor’s supervision; therefore, they are ruining their bodies without them knowing. Many of these athletes are looking at the outcome only and not what there are doing to their bodies in addition to getting stronger, muscular, and fit. All governing sport bodies in the United States need to take steroid testing seriously and give at...
Since at least the 1980’s performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) have been a major challenge in the world of Major League Baseball, and past trends indicate they will continue to pose an ongoing problem. A number of the most prominent and accomplished professional baseball players, such as Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Roger Clemens, are also the most famous examples of baseball players who have broken longstanding records, attracted countless numbers of fans, and allegedly have taken performance-enhancing drugs. Athletes who have been caught using steroids in order to increase and better their performance rates have been suspended, fined and traded from the teams on which they once played. Despite the punitive actions taken against them by the League and lawmakers, players continue to use performance-enhancing drugs and likely will continue to do so, because the associated athletic effects will draw more fans and bring more money to the individual player and franchise.
Baseball is known as America’s pastime and is one of the most popular, respected sports on earth. Since the beginning of the sport, it seemingly advances with technology every year making faster and stronger players. The use of steroids became rampant and spread among players and has carried them away from the true history of the game they play. Controversy still today runs around the sport today about fines, punishments and record breaking. The past two decades of Major League Baseball have been tainted because of the use of performance enhancing drugs, also known as steroids, causing the loss of many fans and the true meaning of America’s favorite sport.
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.
The role of PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) in world of sports has been the center of much controversy and debate dating back to the beginning of the Olympics, that has captured a considerable amount of attention within the past century. The revelation of PED use by star athletes has been a repeating occurrence in the world of professional sports. These allegations quickly turn legacies into scandals, for what one person once stood for throughout their career is now quickly overshadowed by the insert of a needle. The question then is, what if they were made legal? what would the reaction be and how would it change each respective league if PEDs were now allowed on the playing field? The use of these supplements has found its place in sports in a very timely and real matter, with many in opposition towards the use because of the growing concerns surrounding them, health and morally. In a closer examination of the purpose of professional sports, it is clear that the use of PEDs only bolster its purpose: allowing professional athletes to push to reach the peak of human perfection resulting in increased performance and success in sports from an entertainment perspective.
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.
Some people and experts feel steroids and performance enhancing drugs have no place in professional sports. “Doping affects the integrity of the sport. Sports aren’t always about winning. The saying “It’s not about whether you win or lose, it’s how you played the game,” although cliche, is absolutely correct” (April Ashby). Many individuals argue the point that steroids aren’t unhealthy because they boost the health of the athlete but statistical facts may prove otherwise. Some also say that the drugs could be easily permitted with medical supervision to control dosing and usage limits of the drugs with the
Many arguments have been made for legalization of steroids in sports. One of these arguments is that even with rules making steroids illegal, athletes will not stop trying to get the advantage. Athletes may play their respective sport for the love of the game, but all athletes understand
Recently many athletes from all kinds of sports have been caught using performance-enhancing drugs. When an athlete tests positive or is suspicious about using performance-enhancing drugs, the athlete is usually vilified in the media. There also have been many instances never reported. It has come to a point where an athlete who is doing really well in his sport has speculations on the use of steroids or other performing-enhancing drugs arise. But the upsetting thing about sports today is that the speculations may very well be true. The use of steroids, and other performance-enhancing drugs, is dangerous. It also has diminished the value of sportsmanship and because of this I believe the performance-enhancing drugs should be banned.