Why Do Professional Athletes Use Steroids?

the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports has been at the center of an international ethical debate for many years. Some professional athletes use steroids and other drugs to gain a competitive advantage in their sport. Such an advantage is generally considered by most athletic organizations to be cheating. In an effort to minimize the use of illegal supplements and other substances, drug tests are conducted frequently by most professional sports organizations.

Among the most popular performance-boosting drugs are anabolic steroids, which are used by athletes to build muscle, strength, and body weight. Experts have suggested that use of anabolic steroids has reached epidemic proportions in high school athletes, representing a real life-threatening risk. Such substances have been known to cause death by heart attack in previously healthy users. Anabolic steroids increase blood

During the 1936 Summer Olympics, athletes from Nazi Germany were alleged to have used some of the first testosterone supplements available. Nearly twenty years later, athletes from the Soviet Union were accused of using testosterone injections to help their performances at the World Weightlifting Championships.

The death of English cyclist Tom Simpson due to amphetamines during the 1967 Tour de France created a new sense of urgency about the need for athletic drug testing. The next year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced drug testing of Olympic athletes, and most other international sports leagues had instituted drug-testing policies by the 1970s.

As new methods of doping were developed, the number of substances that had to be tested for increased. By the 1970s, tests were able to detect the presence of anabolic steroids, which were used heavily by weight lifters. Tests for erythropoietin-based blood doping were not implemented at the Olympic Games until