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Drug Using in Sports

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1. Introduction
As the Olympics and other sports events have raised people’s interest, the doping problem in sports has aroused wide attention of the international community. There is an increasing number of unregulated doping events detected in some important international sports events. Most people think performance enhancing drugs should not be allowed in sports; however, actually, doping should be advocated on the basis of safety. In this essay, the reason why athletes dope and why society disapproves of this phenomenon will be explained. Then the situation of the inevitability of doping will be discussed. Finally, the reason why doping should be allowed will be illustrated.

2. Reason of doping and disapproval of society
Doping in sports is regarded to be against the rules and the athletes who doping in their competitions are considered that they are cheating. Although there is public opinion in society, some athletes still would like to take risks in doping. Why do athletes determine to dope in sports regardless of all consequences? And why do the society so oppose this phenomenon?

2.1 Reason of doping
Athletes, especially elite athletes, desire great perfomance in competition and honor of win. Moreover, once they win the championship, they start to attach to maintain the title and break the record. These benefits and glory make the idea of doping grow in some athletes’ heart. Recently, the whole world was shocked by the news that the most famous cycling champion Lance Armstrong admitted that he doped to win in his races (Passa, 2013). People must cannot believe that such professional elite athlete would dope in sports. When some sport managing organizations claim that all races are fair and just, Armstrong’s admission completely overthrows the claim. It means that there are a lot of loopholes in controling drugs and ispection in most sports events yet. This ineffective management indulges athletes with doping. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) spends $28 million annually to catch dopes but this amount is believed to be far from enough. WADA advocates that deductions should be carried out randomly during races and the athletes who are caught will be severely punished. Many professional sports leagues including Olympics follow WADA guidelines; however, there is still great doping problem in the leagues which do not follow the guidelines. For example, the National Football League (NFL), one of the biggest and the most famous sport competition in the United States, is also the competition with the biggest doping problem (Velasco, 2013).

2.2 Reason of disapproval in society
Sport is a kind of activity which can show power, speed, courage and wisdom of human beings and it is believed to be given spirit of honesty, dedication and so on. The myth of the marathon does interpret the spirit due to the willpower of the messenger who insisted on running to declear the victory of his country (Savulescu, Foddy & Clayton, 2004; Velasco, 2013). Doping will make athletes depend too much on drugs so that the willpower will be impaired. Therefore, doping in sports is considered to offend the lofty spirit. Lance Armstrong was stripped of all his medals and title after he admitted he doped in his races (Passa, 2013). Within such an additional external power as doping, the individual recognization of athletes will be weakened. Then the climate of sport will be doubted because people think sport will be no longer fair and the efforts that athletes make can be substituted by the money used in doping (Savulescu, Foddy & Clayton, 2004). Meanwhile, health problems of athletes are highly raising concerns for society. Taking too much drugs will burden the body of athletes. The society have to prevent the occurrence of this awful situation (Kayser, Mauron & Miah, 2007).

3. Inescapability from doping
There may be great differences among different people’s gene. This brings about that some athletes may have genetic advantages. In order to reduce the disparity of natural ability, many athletes try to dope on top of long time training (Savulescu, Foddy & Clayton, 2004). Besides, if an elite athlete wins a competition, he (or she) will obtain millions of dollars not only for prize, but also from sponsorships. The lure of success and great amount of prize increases the possibility of doping in sports (Savulescu, Foddy & Clayton, 2004). In addition, once a new drug is invented, the scienteists will do enormous variety of tests to find a best way to identify the new drug (Cressey & Callaway, 2012). No doubt it is a great challenge and it will take long to complete the task. Furthermore, a new way of enhancing performance called “gene doping” may happen in the future, which researchers think it will be impossible to detect (Kayser, Mauron & Miah, 2007). It implies that drug manufacturers are ahead of the scientists who develop tests for drugs and athletes can try their new drugs during the tests are going on.

4. Reason why doping should be permitted
Objective point of view should be put on the doping problem. People should rationally think about whether the society does its utmost to prevent doping is correct or not. The fact is that there is an increasing number of doping events appearing and there may be some cases have not been caught out yet though large sums of money are invested to control doping in sports. Since doping is inevitable, it is better to monitor athletes to use drugs in a safe and healthy way to avoid abuse of drugs. With the permission of doping in sports, sports physicians can play a greater role in caring and guaranteeing the health of athletes (Kayser, Mauron & Miah, 2007).
In current civilized society, climate form spontaneously by evolution, instead of being controled by enforcement. During the 1920s, American government implemented policies of banning alcohol in order to changing the drinking habits, but in fact, the consumption of alcohol raced up (Savulescu, Foddy & Clayton, 2004). It suggests that enforcement can only have minus effect. It is urgent to make a reform which can make doping supervised effectively after completely reviewing the current policy.

Conclusion
Some elite athletes continue to dope in sports for the purpose of achieving the honor of win when anti-doping organazations only spend little money to catch dopes and some sports leagues even do not have an effective control of drugs. The society tries its best to object doping since people think doping in sports offend the spirit of sport and bring about an unhealthy climate. The health problem of athletes also causes anxiety due to the abuse of drugs. Doping is always an inevitable problem because of natural ability, lure of prize and developing science and technology. The emphasis should be put on how to use drugs safely instead of how to prohibit doping in sports. Only within open, transparent and normalized doping, people can be monitored to use drugs in sports safely and fairly.

References
Cressey, D. & Callaway, E. (2012, July 18). Science at the Olympics: Team science. Nature, 487(7407), 290-292. doi: 10.1038/487297a
Kayser, B., Mauron, A., & Miah, A. (2007). Current anti-doping poolicy: a critical appraisal. BMC Medical Ethics, 8(2). Doi: 10.1186/1472-6939-8-2
Passa, D. (2013, January 21). Federer, Serena Williams say Lance Armstrong let all athletes down by doping. Globe and Mail. Retrived from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/federer-serena-williams-say-lance-armstrong-let-all-athletes-down-by-doping/article7554856/
Savulescu, J., Foddy, B., & Clayton, M. (2004). Why we should allow performance enhancing drugs in sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 38, (6), 666-670. doi:10.1136/bjsm.2003.005249
Velasco, S. (2013, February 13). Drugs in sports: Who is winning the doping war? The Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/0213/Drugs-in-sports-Who-is-winning-the-doping-war#. URvTs59slI8.email

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