Cheating, is it really worth it?
Performance Enhancing Drugs
Performance enhancing drugs are an on-going occurrence. Sports such as baseball, cycling, football and bodybuilding, incorporate performance enhancements. Athletes are influenced by teammates, coaches and media to use performance-enhancing drugs in order to receive high pay as professionals. Athletes, coaches and sport administrators tend to use every ethical and unethical means in order to win. The world that we live in may provide us with substances that builds one’s strength, enhances speed, expands energy levels, controls weight and increases aggressiveness, but not all supplements available are legal. What makes other drugs legal over the illegal substances?
In 1948, steroids began to be used in the sporting community. Athletes discovered the that steroids were enhancing their to perform and therefore continued to use them. As a result, athletes continued to push the regulations and rules that were conducted and consequently lead to the ban of certain drugs. The stimulants were being misused in order to gain competitive advantage. Research shows that athletes skip to the fastest, easiest advancements to win in an athletic program. As sports become more competitive, the use of performance enhancing drugs increase. Is winning that important? Drugs used to enhance one’s ability are seen as “unfair” to some because it is an advantage toward the user and an unnatural advantage toward the nonuser. For instance, Lumpkin claims that, athletes have convinced themselves that their training and abilities do not give them the extra second, meter or skill needed to excel over their competitors, so they need to enhance their performances through drugs and other rule-breaking methods” (Modern Sports Ethics 99). Here she is referring to Olympic athletes. That proves that even the best try and take advantage of enhancements even if they are illegal.
In higher competitions such as championships, drug testing occurs to prevent inequality. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) forbid all of the following: stimulants, anabolic agents, alcohol and beta-blockers, diuretics and other making agents, street drugs, peptide hormones and analogues, anti-estrogens and beta-2 agonists. These drugs appear on drug tests. Some athletes find ways in order to avoid from being caught with the use of illegal drug enhancers. A prime example of this is users of antibiotic steroids use Probenecid (Benemid) and Carbamates in order to block the steroid metabolites from the body through the kidney and urine.
Athletes tend to continue to use drugs to enhance their performance however there are alternatives that are healthy and legal. The healthier and “fair” replacements include: bicarbonate, carbohydrate powders, sports energy bars, skim milk powder, specific vitamins and minerals, and much more; which are all food supplements. These certain alternatives can give the enhancement one needs to be stronger, faster and fit. Many athletes tend to skip these options because it takes longer to develop the change they are striving for. This is a much healthier path for an athlete to take in order to win the right way. An athlete puts their body at risk when using drugs to enhance their performance (see picture below). Partaking in such drugs lead to harmful diseases, cancers and physical appearance. In the end is it worth it to take drugs to win?
All in all, the growth of performance-enhancing drugs is an expanding action taken on by athletes. It is a large field to try and stop, but with the right methods and strategies, the use of the drugs can be prevented. Athletes abuse drugs and in the end do not realize the real harm they are doing to their bodies to win.
In 1948, steroids began to be used in the sporting community. Athletes discovered the that steroids were enhancing their to perform and therefore continued to use them. As a result, athletes continued to push the regulations and rules that were conducted and consequently lead to the ban of certain drugs. The stimulants were being misused in order to gain competitive advantage. Research shows that athletes skip to the fastest, easiest advancements to win in an athletic program. As sports become more competitive, the use of performance enhancing drugs increase. Is winning that important? Drugs used to enhance one’s ability are seen as “unfair” to some because it is an advantage toward the user and an unnatural advantage toward the nonuser. For instance, Lumpkin claims that, athletes have convinced themselves that their training and abilities do not give them the extra second, meter or skill needed to excel over their competitors, so they need to enhance their performances through drugs and other rule-breaking methods” (Modern Sports Ethics 99). Here she is referring to Olympic athletes. That proves that even the best try and take advantage of enhancements even if they are illegal.
In higher competitions such as championships, drug testing occurs to prevent inequality. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) forbid all of the following: stimulants, anabolic agents, alcohol and beta-blockers, diuretics and other making agents, street drugs, peptide hormones and analogues, anti-estrogens and beta-2 agonists. These drugs appear on drug tests. Some athletes find ways in order to avoid from being caught with the use of illegal drug enhancers. A prime example of this is users of antibiotic steroids use Probenecid (Benemid) and Carbamates in order to block the steroid metabolites from the body through the kidney and urine.
Athletes tend to continue to use drugs to enhance their performance however there are alternatives that are healthy and legal. The healthier and “fair” replacements include: bicarbonate, carbohydrate powders, sports energy bars, skim milk powder, specific vitamins and minerals, and much more; which are all food supplements. These certain alternatives can give the enhancement one needs to be stronger, faster and fit. Many athletes tend to skip these options because it takes longer to develop the change they are striving for. This is a much healthier path for an athlete to take in order to win the right way. An athlete puts their body at risk when using drugs to enhance their performance (see picture below). Partaking in such drugs lead to harmful diseases, cancers and physical appearance. In the end is it worth it to take drugs to win?
All in all, the growth of performance-enhancing drugs is an expanding action taken on by athletes. It is a large field to try and stop, but with the right methods and strategies, the use of the drugs can be prevented. Athletes abuse drugs and in the end do not realize the real harm they are doing to their bodies to win.