In an article by Michael Gonchar it said, “Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last week after the International Cycling Union decided that he was a ringleader of a doping program on his winning cycling team. Armstrong was a heroic figure for many, not just because of his cycling feats, but also because he is a cancer survivor and the founder of the highly respected Livestrong cancer foundation,” (Gonchar). Many children when beginning a sport have an idol they look up to and want to be just like. Mine was Alina Kabaeva. Alina was a Russian Rhythmic Gymnast who won 2 gold medals at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. I fell in love with her performance when watching the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. That year she won bronze for All-around. Little did I know the next year she would test positive for a banned anabolic steroid Diuretic Furosemide. This caused me to feel like I could not be as good as her without some form of illegal substance.
Despite teammates’ emotional attachment to the medals they have won, authorities should take their medals away because the team would not have won the title if the other member was not using the Performance Enhancing Drug. Any type of artificial substance that an athlete takes can be considered as a Performance Enhancing Drug. There are several different classes and each one has a unique effects and side effects. Some of the classes Performance Enhancing Drugs that are commonly used are: lean mass builders, stimulants, painkillers, sedatives, diuretics, boosters, and masking drugs (Wikipedia). Within each of these types of P.E.D.’s there are different drugs.
Some may wonder what these classes are. Lean Mass Builders drive or amplify the growth of musc...
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...ones' relay teammates not about to surrender medals. 15 April 2008. 4 October 2013. .
NCAA. NCAA. 2013 June 5. Web. 2013 December 3.
Olympic.org. The International Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008. n.d. 9 September 2013. .
Staff, Mayo Clinic. Performance-enhancing drugs: Know the risks. 2 December 2012. Web. 3 December 2013.
United States Olympic Committee. Testimony of Jim Scherr. 27 February 2008. 26 September 2013. .
Wikipedia. Performance Enhancing Drugs. 13 September 2013. 13 September 2013. .
Walters, Guy. Berlin Games: How the Nazis Stole the Olympic Dream. New York: William Morrow, 2006. Print.
Since 776 BCE, the Olympics have been a way for people of different cultures to come together and compete in friendly competition. In 1892 the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, although it had been over a thousand years since the last game it still had brought together an assortment of different religions and ethnic groups together. Many factors shaping the Olympic Games reflect the changes that have taken place in our world since the last game in 393 CE in Greece such changes include woman’s suffrage, global economy, world wars, and proving competency.
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.
Wilson, Stephen. “Doping Incidents Shake Sports from Swimming to Track & Field.” Seattle Post- Intelligencer, Seattle, Wash.,.1 Aug. 1998: E6.
Kindersly, Dorling. The Olympic Games: Athens 1896-Sydney 2000 Chronicle of the Games, 1 July 2000
The use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs is a common trend that is currently fascinating athletes all over the world. Athletes who are using these drugs are damaging the sport and harming their bodies at the same time. Seeking a greater athletic physique and ability, athletes turned to the use of steroids. Once the dangers and possible health risks arose, athletes then turned to performance enhancers. Two specific supplements have taken the sports world by storm and now are being used by athletes of all ages. They are androstenedione and creatine. It took years until people began to understand how dangerous steroids really were. These performance enhancers, like androstenedione and creatine are going to produce the same results.
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.
Performance enhancing drugs: Know the risks. (2012, December 12). . Retrieved May 24, 2014, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/fitness/in-depth/performance-enhancing-drugs/art-20046134
middle of paper ... ...A. & Co. The Olympics, A History of the Modern Games. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois. of Illinois, in 1992.
The use of performance enhancing drugs improves the athletes’ performance; however, it may endanger the body’s natural mechanism. The body is an organism that is able to carry out its optimal function by how it is treated through the lifestyle, whether sedentary or active, nutritional habits, exercise and hygienic habits of the individual. These are altered by the use of drugs. Many athletes are oblivious to the reality of the grave effects of doping on the body and put themselves at risk for acquiring many potential illnesses, for example, “cardiovascular and liver disease, infertility in males and females and emotional instability – depression” (Maxwell et al., 2005). These reactions may be evident after prolonged use of drugs as athletes may become dependent. In contrast, enhancement drugs may “increase the athletes strength, speed, appetite and reduce fatigue” (Arnheim, & Prentice, 2002). These advantages add to the overwhelm...
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.
For many, many years, doping has been an integral part of athletic society. Research believes that doping derives roots back in ancient Greek and Roman culture, 776 B.C (Baron)! Granted PEDs back in the day were god-awful mixtures of herbs, drugs, and alcohol, the drugs athletes are taking now are just as bad. Margaret Goodman, a neurologist and the president of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA), explains the different side-effects of steroids. As a ringside physician of boxing matches, she’s listened to the boxers talk about performance-enhancing drugs. Fighters using dope described the horrible consequences: heart, kidney, liver, bone, brain and psychiatric ailment (Goodman).
middle of paper ... ... Online Internet - a. 12 Apr, 2000. Available URL: http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/caw/cwl/student-work/15-min-fame/oho.htm. The IOC accuses U.S. pro sports of ignoring dope testing.
... able to be the competitors of the Olympic Games, this is an internationally recognized action for them. If the IOC did not co-ordinate this event well, believe that the development of Olympic Games may not be as well as today.
Introduction Today, the Olympic Games are the world's largest pageant of athletic skill and competitive spirit. They are also displays of nationalism, commerce and politics. Well-known throughout the world the games have been used to promote understanding and friendship among nations, but have also been a hotbed of political disputes and boycotts. The Olympic games started thousands of years ago and lasted over a millennium.. The symbolic power of the Games lived on after their demise, and came to life again as the modern Olympic Games being revived in the last century. Both the modern and Ancient Olympics have close similarities in there purpose and in there problems.