...Athletes enhancing their performance are common in sports today. Headlines seem to pop up every month about athletes doping across various sports. Through the use of injections or pills, the use of drugs in sports goes back almost to the invention of the concept of sports. Sports like wrestling, soccer, American football and cycling are among the many sports that are influenced by doping. These performance enhancing drugs make the body produce more red blood cells and only last for a short period of time, contrasting to the regular steroid. These drugs allow the athlete to obtain more oxygen into their system – enhancing their performance for a few hours before returning to their normal state. More and more athletes are doping, with Lance Armstrong...
Words: 1278 - Pages: 6
...Mrs. Figs English 3 10 February 2013 Steroids In many parts of the world today, sports competitions are the vehicle for the fierce quest to win, to be “the best.” Athletes will do anything to win whether that be cheating in golf or taking steroids in order to excel in baseball. It is said that over three million athletes and bodybuilders have used illegal steroids in this country alone (Solberg 92). If many people already use steroids why not make them legal and let people take them at their own risk? Or perhaps do you think steroids should stay illegal because they have harmful side effects and promote an unfair advantage in sports? With the growing concern over steroid use in our country, we must look at what is really best for the future of our athletes and the spirit of competition. Steroids are extra hormones that are either taken orally or injected into the body. Theses hormones set off a reaction that sends an individual’s testosterone level soaring, which in turn allows that person to increase muscle size and strength. But with this new-found strength comes some harmful side effects. Steroids can cause heart attacks or liver cancer, not to mention all the newly acquired acne that often develops. These are only a few of the hundreds of unhealthy things that can happen to you when you are on steroid (Harris129). Many people, medical experts and athletes alike, feel steroids should be legalized. They feel that the use of steroids a few times and in moderation is acceptable...
Words: 1380 - Pages: 6
...with drugs and athletes is a big step towards future activities. It can cause hazardous predicaments by taking illegal drugs, not following the laws that’s required for an athlete to compete. The drugs that are used by athletes are to be used for considerable reasoning. Instead, it gets used for the wrong reasons. Cheating your way towards a great success, will soon catch up and turn out into a tragedy due to eagerness. Athletes must find a way to abstain from this type of virus. Any and everyone can do this, but it takes time to do so with the certain capabilities that will help. It might appear that drugs are being abused by athletes, but as to them, it is taken as a concise product. By athletes enhancing drugs, risks are being taken. In results, athletes rely on drugs by keep them in the best shape of their lives as well as performing at their best level Testing Drugs on Athletes "Drugs have changed the way athletes perform. It has spread throughout the world in many different ways and is an effect towards the young, as well as the elderly" (Adler, 2009, p.44). Athletes are first tested by giving a urine sample. Athletes must first go through this progress in order for them to proceed. A drug test is an ANALYSIS of specifics through hair, blood, urine, sweat, or saliva. It’s to determine whether or not a person is on drugs. Drug testing is assembled all throughout the world. Discovering drugs on athletes can be critical at times. Any athlete can be determined...
Words: 2519 - Pages: 11
...Steroids are one of the most controversial drugs known to the human race. These drugs are seemingly notorious for their ability to produce large amounts of muscle mass in an attempt to exploit ultimate power, performance, and dominance in a person. However, the negative effects of steroids tend to have a severe impact on the justification of the drug’s use in today’s society. When I say society, I am rather referring to a more predominant superior subculture, the professional athlete that can easily be held accountable for the cultivation and spread of steroids. This “high-class” group can denote the contrary of ethics; that is, revealing actions which tend to expose a sense of narcissistic personal qualities that hinder our beliefs of what is right and what is wrong. At one point or another, performance enhancing substances outspokenly seem to enter every professional athlete’s mind. The issue of steroids or any performance enhancing drugs in this matter has significantly heightened recently and seems to be a legitimate issue within professional sports. In an attempt to meet expectations and standards, reduce the pressures to perform, and alleviate public scrutiny, many professional athletes are left quivering in fear whether or not to take the two-faced drug that’s so readily adhered to by many. In my attempt to explore the mainstream issue of steroids in professional sports, I wish to focus on three imperative aspects that will help assist in the configuration...
Words: 3631 - Pages: 15
... The Real Deal of Steroids Athletes are some of the most famous and influential people in the world. Who have many young people who are fans that look up to them. When the word Athletes comes to mind another word is usually followed closed behind it, which is Steroids. The reason for this is that Athletes are always under the limelight for use of Steroids, but do people really know the real use for them or what the history is? Why they are even legal in the first place? There are a lot of background and personal uses for Steroids that go outside, of the physical aspect that people normally think of. For example Steroids is basically a hormone drug that just does what our body at the moment cannot do. There are also different types of hormone steroids that affect different parts of the body and the ways they are actually injected into your body. The real reason for steroids that many people do not get is that it is used as a substitute for faster healing time. Even though they are frowned upon by our society steroids do have a legitimate use for them. Which ranges form helping with hormones or helping with some type of injury. As mention in the web page anabolic small.com “Anabolic steroids have several legitimate medical use.”(par 1) With this statement it is proving that steroids are good for the body for the period of time that you are on them. They are highly addictive and which is why many people take them so often not to only bulk...
Words: 1904 - Pages: 8
...Why are Athletes Turning to Performance Enhancing Drugs? “One of the most exciting sports stories in recent years was the attempt to break Roger Maris’ single-season home run record [of sixty-one] in baseball. On September 8, 1998, Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals made history by hitting his sixty-second home run,” writes William Dudley. He also states, “However, many people believe that McGwire’s achievement was tarnished by a revelation some weeks earlier that he had been using androstenedione, a compound that temporarily boosts levels of the male sex hormone testosterone” (Dudley, 7). This drew attention to the serious problem of performance enhancing drug use in professional and amateur sports. The issue of performance enhancing...
Words: 1368 - Pages: 6
... a famous political figure, I'm musician or an exceptional athlete, everything they did had an impact on us. And this is not just the case for us and for generations before us, but also future generations. In sports, one must have discipline, a strong work ethic and the unceasing desire to succeed. These are the values and morals that famous athletes bestow on children and young adults that give them the opportunity to become exemplary role models. But all of this can be completely erased if that athlete so much as humors the assistance from performance enhancing drugs. Steroids cause some of the most elite athletes on the planet to become shunned by the organization for whom they played and the fans that they disappointed. 4 in 10 teenage steroid users credit their knowledge of and use of the drugs to a famous athlete, which is why it is so critical to inform people of the danger that come with steroids and the numerous reputations they have shattered. It is my goal throughout this speech to not only enlighten you as to what steroids are and why they are such a problem, but also urge you to never let the use of these deadly drugs cross your mind. Listen well, because it is your right to be informed about a problem so common in people our age. Anabolic steroids is the familiar name for synthetic variants of the male sex hormone testosterone . steroids can be legally prescribed to treat conditions resulting from steroid hormone deficiency, such as delayed puberty, as well as diseases that result in loss of lean ...
Words: 723 - Pages: 3
...Steroids have been part of baseball history for a long time and it’s benefited athletes who resort to using it without getting caught. It’s helped the game develop into the game we see today, with players breaking home run records and pitchers pitching Cy Young worthy numbers. Steroids have caused a rift between who should or shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame because it helped them get a competitive boost with the use of an injection or cream, while others played naturally and legally. While I believe that steroids have its advantages in athletes, it is just another way athletes can gain a competitive boost. If steroids were to be legalized, all athletes would have the chance to compete at the same level, but in a much higher and competitive environment. The stadiums would be more electric and games would be more exciting for the fans to enjoy....
Words: 2494 - Pages: 10
...The Ethics, Effects, and Fairness of PEDs Despite being banned in many leagues and competitions, steroids are still used to gain an edge over other competitors. Athletes use steroids without any regard to the ethics that accompany the intake of drugs. There are many reasons why competitors should, in fact, follow the rules set in place and stop using steroids completely. Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) should completely stop being used in competitions or leagues. First of all, anabolic steroids are known to be bad for your health. PEDs have unpleasant, undesirable side effects. The United States Anti-Doping Agency lists the symptoms of using PEDs, which include ”liver damage, stunted growth, increased aggressiveness, leukemia, anemia,...
Words: 1261 - Pages: 6
...willing to do whatever it takes to be number one, or the best at what they do. The smallest, slightest advantage could make all the difference in the world, especially in an olympic race where .5 milliseconds could be the difference between winning and losing. The use of performing enhancing drugs has given athletes an advantage, over those who do not use them. Not only have athletes engaged in the use of anabolic steroids, but other drugs such as stimulants, beta-blockers, diuretics, and human growth hormone. Society has placed a pressure on athletes...
Words: 1805 - Pages: 8
...Steroids in Sports While many are attracted to steroids for an improvement in athletic performance many athletes now a days are taking steroids, why is that? Is it to make a squad, or impress a member of the opposite sex? There is not a right or wrong answer to why athletes feel the need to take performance enhancing drugs. However ones psychological state, genetic mishaps, or even performance pressures from the coaching staff, can lead an athlete to steroids. Issues of cheating or winning at any cost, are becoming more and more common among athletes of all ages and levels of ability. The use of steroids is one of the biggest issues in the current debate whether or not it is fair for drug-free athletes to have to compete with athletes that break the law and take illegal steroids. Allowing those with an unfair advantage to compete can pressure drug-free athletes to use steroids to remain competitive. The use of steroids by athletes over the last decade and a half is well documented and proven no matter how many tried to deny their cheating in order to get a leg up on their competitors. Steroids continue to taint the sports world as we speak. It has come to light that baseball superstars Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark McGwire have admitted using preforming enhancing drugs during their baseball careers. Each athlete’s statistics ballooned to numbers never achieved before by prior athletes. While some athletes deny knowing they were doing anything illegal or cheating they...
Words: 549 - Pages: 3
...for athletes to take performance enhancing drugs despite the risks involved? Abstract Drugs in sport is an ongoing problem which I believe will never be completely abolished from the sporting world. We have definitely come a long way since the early days of drug use with the introduction of governing bodies such ad WADA to help control the testing of athletes and the detection of illegal substances, however I do not think we will be able to completely remove this ’drug culture’ from the sporting world. Therefore having experienced first-hand the drug testing practices involved in detection after competing in the world youth championships this year I was interested to look into the motivation behind athletes who choose to cheat and risk their future career both athletically and their career after retirement having been branded as a 'cheat’ within their sport. I will do this by looking into the history of drug use in sport and the enhancements the drugs provide to performance to try to understand why athletes risk their careers to simply win. Contents | | Abstract | 2 | Introduction | 2 | Drugs in sport; a modern problem? | 3 | Drugs in sport: what are they? * Amphetamines * Anabolic steroids * EPO * Diuretics * Caffeine | 3-6 | Drugs in sport: health risks | 6-7 | Drugs in sport: detection...
Words: 3937 - Pages: 16
...whether steroids and performance enhances should be allowed in sports today. This topic usually occurs in baseball but in recent discoveries, many football players are condemned for doping. Vast names in sports such as: Ray Lewis, Alex Rodriguez, and Christian Laettner were all suspended by their respected leagues for doping. Steroids should be banned in professional sports today because they give athletes unfair advantages, they’re horrible to the athletes’ body, and there can be severe side effects. There are copious types of steroids that athletes use. “The most common type of steroids that athletes use are anabolic steroids, or synthetic versions of the male hormone, testosterone” (Quinn). This particular...
Words: 1438 - Pages: 6
...to find a top player who has used steroids. The challenge is to find a top player who hasn’t…” - Jose Canseco (2005) Performance-Enhancing drugs are widely used in sports in order to win and be the best, despite the fact that they are illegal and dangerous. It has always been a very “Black and White” issue. Many people, while they may not agree with it; they believe we should ignore it because these are “Sports Stars”. While others, want the athletes in question to be stripped of any titles they may have achieved while supposedly “juicing”. I believe that this is an issue of whom the controversy surrounds and why it is happening in sports. Athletes use Performance-Enhancing drugs despite the risk of side-effects. There have been serious documented risks of using Performance-Enhancing drugs. Some of these side effects are: death, high blood pressure, heart attacks, liver damage, stroke, headaches, increased risk of joint and tendon injuries, baldness, “roid rage”, hallucinations, anxiety, and depression. Additionally, reduced sperm count, impotence, increased breast size, and enlarged prostate are side-effects that occur in men. (American Academy of Pediatrics. 2002). Many companies have produced supplements that do not require a prescription or can be obtained legally that may produce similar results in muscle gain and strength, without the dangerous steroid side-effects. The companies that produce steroids state that they are safe for the user...
Words: 1952 - Pages: 8
...Steroids in Professional Sports Nicole Hohn ITT Technical Institute November 13, 2014 SLesure Steroids in Professional Sports In recent years there has been speculation on individuals in professional sports using steroids to better enhance their performance. In 2012, Lance Armstrong was disqualified from seven races that he had won ten years before, all due to the United States Anti-Doping Agency confirming that he was doping- which is the term used to describe the act of doing steroids. Armstrong was stripped of all his medals and is one of many examples of a professional having their achievements taken away because of the use of steroids (Smith, 2012). Many people still believe that the use of steroids is wrong and gives the professional the upper hand over one who does not do steroids. At the end of the day you still have to have raw talent. An average Joe could not take steroids and then expect to go play in a Major League Baseball game. As with cigarettes and alcohol every individual should be able to decide what they want to responsibly put into their body. Steroids should be made legal for all individuals and the usage should be monitored by doctors. As stated above, any individual has to still possess the talent in the first place. There is a common misconception that steroids are making them “stars”. In all actuality it is only enhancing their ability to perform (Smith, 2012). Every single sports player takes extra steps to help themselves perform every day; for example...
Words: 951 - Pages: 4
