Steroids In Sports Research Paper

The following quote is by Evander Holyfield, a professional boxer. “Well, when I think of steroids I think of an image. You have the advantage over someone, which is a form of cheating. I guess it wouldn't be right unless it was legal for everybody. Reason it's not legal for everybody is because it can hurt people seriously.” The quote gives the opinion of an athlete that can affected more than most by the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs, or PEDs as I will refer to them in this paper, due to the fact that he is a professional boxer. Even though PEDs can greatly increase one’s athletic ability, they can also greatly damage a person during continued and over use and should not be legalized for professional athletes to use.
Becoming a professional athlete is an outstanding, prestigious, and highly sought after accomplishment and many of

the professional athletes playing their sports today are role models and heroes to young boys and girls who aspire to become just like them, teenagers who have dreams of playing up thought the college level, becoming a pro and playing alongside their biggest heroes, and even adults who look forward to watching their favorite players play their game when they come home from a long day at work. PEDs take away from this, tainting what it means to become a professional athlete. What does it mean to become a pro if they did not achieve it through hard work and determination, but took supplements to enhance their body making them stronger, faster, and increase stamina? Taking PEDs is a cheap and false way of becoming the best, they did not get there by themselves, they had to alter their body and cheat their way up. The most common PEDs are anabolic steroids (Anabolic Steroids). The use of anabolic steroids can cause to increased cholesterol levels, liver damage, mood swings, aggressive behavior, irregular heartbeat and other heart problems, and hypertension to name just a few health defects that you are at risks to while taking these enhancers (Doping in Sports Pros and Cons - HRF).
While most consider using steroids is cheating, some consider it to be a way of making it a way of evening the odds for underdeveloped players and protecting the individual rights of the players by allowing them to alter their bodies as they see fit.

America allows thousands of citizens to kill themselves with cigarette and tobacco use, why not allow them to kill themselves with PEDs? The following quote gives insight into the thoughts of Robert Simon, PhD, “After all, if we should not forbid smokers from risking their health by smoking, why should we prohibit track stars or weightlifters from taking risks with their health in pursuit of their goals?” (Top 10 Pros and Cons).
With all of these negative effects of using PEDs they should not be permitted and by using them the athletic heroes of today are teaching children and teenagers that it is fine to use these drugs and that the side effects are worth the few years in which they will play professional sports, assuming they ever reach that level. Athletes taking these PEDs show young adults and children that it is OK to cheat and that there are not any repercussions in taking

them.
Continued and overuse of PEDs can actually decrease a player’s ability to compete, which is counterintuitive. They take these drugs to make it to the top and when they reach their Nirvana, they are only there for a short time before they become too old or someone more skilled and more athletic comes around to take their job. Using these drugs can cause depression (Fitness). Depression can lead to lack of motivation to play their sport, causing them to get replaced by another player or athlete that is trying harder than they are. Dizziness and cramping is yet another issue with taking these PEDs or “doping” as it is frequently referred as. Dizziness can lead to injury on the playing field as it can cause them to not see right, become ill, and lose footing and cramping can limit mobility for a short time, but is still an issue as it causes the player pain to move or lack of movement entirely for a short time Another problem that using PEDs can cause are reproductive complications in men. Among these problems are shrunken testicles, infertility, and impotence (Fitness). Shrunken testicles can cause a low sperm count that causes difficulty in impregnating a female; while infertility means that they cannot produce an offspring or reproduce. Impotence is a term for difficulty getting an erection and another term for impotence is ED or Erectile Dysfunction.
Stokes are also caused by taking PEDs (Fitness).