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Essay on doping in sport
Essay on doping in sport
Banning drugs for professional sports
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The use of drugs for an athlete may be very harmful as his/her health is in great danger. Some drugs are illegal and the International Olympic Committee has a list of banned substances which if consumed, may give out terrible consequences. Such examples are: In July 2013, the U.S Anti-Doping Agency announced that the world famous Tyson Gay had been tested positive for an unnamed drug. And there are many more athletes performing various types of sports who have been banned from that particular sport because of their intake of drugs in order to cheat and therefore this is why it is important for athletes to stay away from drugs as it is the main reason as to why their training and performance level drops immensely.
Anabolic steroids have become an epidemic amongst athletes since the 1950's when a Swiss company by the name of Ciba Pharmaceuticals introduced what was to become the most popular anabolic drug for athletes called methandrostenolone. “By this time, the era of the steroid athlete was well underway and world records were being shattered and re-shattered with remarkable regularity.” (Oklobdzija & Weyrauch, 1989, para 3) From then on, there have been many cases throughout professional sports where athletes are reported or caught using anabolic steroids.
Professional athletes, throughout history, have been exalted for their outstanding abilities and achievements in sports. Unfortunately, many athletes have turned to anabolic steroids in order to give them an edge, a boost their athletic performance. Starting with the 1954 World Weightlifting Championships, where the Soviets unexpectedly dominated their lifting classes with the use of steroids, it has become increasingly popular among athletes to cheat with the help of this drug. Although the appeal to steroid use is evident when observing how it increases someone’s athletic abilities, many users fail to consider the detrimental side effects of the drug. Also, in my opinion, athletes should be expected to perform based upon their natural abilities, opposed to abilities enhanced by anabolic steroids. Ultimately, anabolic steroids should continue to be illegal in professional sports due to their major health risks and the unfair advantage they serve players.
Citius, Altius, Fortius is the motto of the Olympic games. Translated from Greek, it means "Faster, Higher, Stronger". Recently, Olympic contenders have been doing everything they can to live up to that motto. Most do it by training hour after hour, each day. Others try to do it by illegally taking performance enhancing drugs. This is why we need to test for drugs at the Olympics. Drug Testing in the Olympics began only recently in the 1968 Games held in Mexico1. Drugs are banned for two very good reasons: the use of drugs produces an unfair advantage, and it is hazardous to the athlete to take them. While drug testing is now commonplace, the procedures are still fairly primitive and arouse much controversy2. We all remember the Andreea Raducan situation from the Sydney Olympics. She unknowingly had consumed a performing enhancing drug that was in her cold medication. Her medal was revoked as soon as the drug test results got back.3 While Andreea was caught, many others who intentionally "doped up" weren't Many of the drugs or procedures out there, still can't be tested for, and more and more athletes are cheating. Most of the drugs and procedures have adverse long term effects, some resulting in death. The drug tests are detrimental to the existence of the Olympics and need to be upheld at all costs.
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.
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 many high schools around the country, student athletes are using drugs. “The percent of students that have drunk alcohol is 72.5% while the number of students who have used marijuana is 36.8%” (Report: Nearly Half of High School Students Using Drugs, Alcohol). The students believe that since they are athletes that they do not need to abide by the rules because they feel more superior and that the narcotic will not hurt or affect them. Implementing random drug tests for athletes will create a positive image and not hurt others or themselves. Schools need to have drug tests for student athletes because drugs effect relationships, using drugs have consequences, and lastly they have a major effect on the body.
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.
Athletes are always searching for ways to enhance their performance. Recently, beginning in the 1950s, that search has included the use of illegal substances like steroids and growth hormones. Illegal substances have been used widely by athletes in hopes of achieving the desired Olympic gold medal or multi-million dollar contract. Some nations, for example the late East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, have mandated the use of steroids by their athletes. The downside of using those illegal substances is that because they are illegal, getting caught using them can lead to losing that coveted gold medal, a lifetime ban from sports, and a total loss of honor and dignity.
Steroids became an option to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950’s. But this use of steroids among athletes only became widely apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the one hundred-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics (Francis, 45). Now a skinny fifteen-year-old can just walk down to the local gym and find people who either sell or know how to get in contact with those who sell the drug that will make him envious of his friends. Steroids are an attractive drug. While steroids seem harmless to the unaware user, they can have a risky effect. Most of the time whether the users are new or experienced, they do not know the dangerous consequences steroids can have on their bodies and their minds. Though steroids cause a relatively insignificant number of deaths in our society, the banning of steroids is justified because steroids have a lot of side effects not known to the uninformed user.
Since drugs have become easier to get they have also become more popular with young people and competitors in sports. During the mid-nineteenth new drugs emerged from the laboratories athletes started to be experimented on. The French tried using caffeine to enhance their performances. While other Europeans were mixing cocaine and heroin to give them extra energy they called this drug “speedball”. In 1886 this deadly mix contributed to the first drug related death in sports by taking the life of a cross-country cyclist. Today the drugs have changed dramatically many athletes have done or are on anabolic steroids, amphetamines, depressants or what are known as “ brake drugs”.
As the use of PEDs is becoming more common, controversy over the legalization has emerged. Among the many different types of performance enhancing drugs out there, the common ones consist of: steroids, red blood cell doping, and human growth hormone. Lance Armstrong was convicted of red blood cell doping and has been stripped of his title and banned from professional cycling. With the numerous amount of athletes convicted of PED abuse, one can question if it is a problem with the athletes or if it is a problem with the state. In all professional sports in the United States, the use of PEDs is prohibited.
Drug use in sports is considered cheating. Doping has many historical backgrounds, but now it is on a larger scale in order to maximiz...
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.
Doping is a practice that has been going on since the time of "ancient Greek athletes, who supposedly ate herbs, sesame seeds, dried figs, and mushrooms for this purpose" (Hoberman, 1992, 104). Likewise, athletes have readily consumed such drugs as caffeine and alcohol to improve performa...
Some might say even the penalty for a positive test in performance enhancing drugs as become too weak. Just last week professional American sprinter Tyson Gay has been suspended for just one year by the US anti doping agency. He was arguably the second fastest along side Yohan Blake ranking second or third after Usain Bolt.