Tophia 1

Ihbbin Tophia

Mrs. Kenly

British Literature

27 April 2018

Should Athletes Be Allowed To Take Performance Enhancement Substances ?

When athletes take drugs it should be prescribed by a doctor to clarify for it to be used legally.

Most people opposed to the use of drugs in sports because they say that It creates an unfair

advantage. All the athletes worked hard to get to where they think they are today. They think

that people who use drugs cheated their way there. The athletes are only seeing the short term

advantage versus them thinking about what will happen in the future.

For people who are for drug in sports say that competition is unfair to begin with. All the new

technology and equipment being used today is having a bigger impact on the athletes

performance than anything else. They say people who take drugs during their activities puts

their health at risk. Currently in the Olympics today all performance enhancing drugs are banned

with the attempted to create an even playing field. It's just the matter of who technology or

equipment is better.

When it comes down to it I believe that non-harmful performance enhancement drugs should

be allowed in professional sports. They produce the same effect as the high end training

equipment use today and if they are not banned then neither should drugs. Although I don’t

believe harmful drugs should be legal in the games but in the end I think the choice is up to the

athletes themselves.
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Sometimes we may ask ourselves how harmful are these performance enhancing drugs.

Performance enhancing drugs will always cause issues and controversy. These steroids help male

hormones that athletes use to build muscle mass and increase endurance. Another area of

controversy is fairness in competition. These drugs give athletes unfair advantage. These athletes

use drugs to get an upper edge over competition. There are questions that successful athletes are

bound to be using performance enhancing drugs. Who use these drugs ? A 2009 poll of ex NFL

players suggested that about one in ten used steroids more than likely used by offensive and

defensive linemen. 10.2 percent of athletes admitted to doping and 24.7 percent lied about it.

Males are more likely to use steroids than females ( John 2017).

Mike Matarazzo was a professional bodybuilder who spoke out about the risk of using

steroids and other drugs. He later died from the use of steroids. He began to have serious

cardiovascular problems such as clogged arteries. He had to undergo heart surgery where he later

died in the hospital. Also, another bodybuilder by the name of Oli Cooney took massive amounts

of steroids hoping to change his body image at the age of 16. By the age of 18 doctors were

warning him to stop taking excessive amounts of steroids. Later on he was diagnosed with

serious heart damage which lead to two heart attacks and three strokes. The doctors advised him

to rest but ignoring doctors order he returned to the gym where he later on collapsed and died.

The death of these bodybuilders prove to the fact that performance-enhancing drugs are harmful

and may cause death. Researchers have discovered that men in their late twenties and thirties

who use excessive amounts of steroids and drugs may result in having serious health problems

such as cardiovascular disease, reproductive trouble and liver damage ( John 2017).

These performance-enhancing drugs also result in long-term physical effect both

physiological and psychological. Physiological side effects refer to the changes in the body’s
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functions and activities. Certain systems of the body are directly impacted by the use of steroids.

Repeated damage to tendons are common with steroid users. Steroids can also throw the male

reproductive system out of balance. Moreover, using performance-enhancing drugs can cause

emotional and behavioral effects. The mental changes can be harmful such as physical damage.

Users who take these drugs may have feelings of extreme aggressiveness and could result in

violent or even criminal behavior ( John 2017). Although steroids are only one of the banned or

illegal substances that sports-based drug tests are designed to detect, they are doubtless the most

frequently used. When critics raise the issue of performance-enhancing drugs, they are generally

referring to steroids or some form of hormonal supplement. Anabolic steroids are the synthetic

version of the male sex hormone testosterone. Natural testosterone is produced by males almost

exclusively in Leydig cells of the testes and by females in the ovaries. Production of testosterone

in males is about ten times the level in females. With age, a male's level of testosterone

production declines continuously. Anabolic steroids take the place of naturally produced

testosterone, dampening the body's production of and disrupting the internal balance of that

hormone (John 2017).

Now as we think about how these performance enhancing drugs play into doping in sports.

Sports is getting more competitive over time. Athletes are becoming stronger and faster

generation by generation. To become faster and stronger athletes are using performance

enhancing drugs. When steroids is combined with harsh physical training it enhance athletic

performance by making them bigger, stronger and faster ( Mitten 2005). Doping does not only
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affect those who use the drugs but also those who chose the clean path and worked hard

(Shrestha 2018).

Now we may ask is testing athletes for these performance enhancing drugs necessary. The

use of performance enhancing drugs are banned by every level of athletics, from professional

leagues to college to high school. Every sports league in America has its own policy on drug

testing for the use of steroids. In Major League Baseball one players first positive test results in

automatic suspension for 80 games without pay. The second test you are suspended for a whole

year; then the third positive test results in suspension for a lifetime. In the National Football

League a first positive test results in suspension for up to six games and for the second positive

test result it may result in suspension for a whole year ( John 2017). All athletes use various

artificial means to enhance their body’s natural performance while playing their sports. Athletes

usually use electrolyte drinks, energy bars, vitamins and minerals are not considered doping. The

usage of anabolic steroids are considered doping or improper means of athletic performance

enhancement (Mitten 2005). Football has been played the same way for decades. The only thing

different is the players has changed. They have gotten bigger. The Associated Press reported that

in 1970 there were only one 300 pound player in the NFL. Only three in 1980 then increased

dramatically to 94 in 1990, 301 in 2000, 394 in 2009 and 532 in 2010. Players are heavier and

faster. Why are these players so big all of a sudden. Human growth and anabolic steroids build

muscle and create heavier and faster players ( Robinson 2017). Athletes from all sports have

made their intentions clear, they will use performance enhancement drugs no matter the

consequences. The prizes and riches offer are so irresistible that they will do whatever it takes to

win. The spirit of fair play has been crushed by money. Today athletes are encouraged by their

coaches and managers to win at all cost ( Cashmore 2018). Doping in sports violate the
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traditional notion of pure, natural athletic competition. Doping is unsettling because it is

damaging to those of good health and character (Rothman 2012). Some observers think tougher

rules on PEDs merely prevent athletes from reaching their potential. A large part of pro sports

appeal, they say, is watching talented individuals perform at their absolute peak level. Fans

attend games or watch broadcasts hoping to witness something they have never seen before a

mammoth home run, an acrobatic dunk, a burst of blazing speed to reach the end zone. PEDs

enable athletes to develop strength, speed, and endurance beyond what was once thought

possible. They open new horizons for athletic achievement. Some argue the best policy and the

one that would be most fair is to legalize PEDs for all competitors. For example, sports business

expert Chris Smith insists that doping is just another way athletes train to perform at that peak

level. He believes that, given the chance, most athletes would use drugs to achieve better

performances and that allowing all players to use PEDs would just create a different kind of

fairness (John 2017).

The process of failed drug test has become known in the Olympics. It has taken several

investigative reports across three years. But at long last the International Olympic Committee

(IOC) decided on December 5th to punish Russia for running a state-sponsored doping

programme. Russian athletes hoping to compete in the winter games in February in

Pyeongchang, South Korea, will have to do so under a neutral flag after proving they are clean.

The World Anti-Doping Agency provided extensive proof of cheating before the summer games

in Rio in 2016, but the IOC still let Russia take a team to Brazil. It has toughened up recently:

since the start of November, Russia has been stripped of 11 medals it won when hosting the

winter games in Sochi in 2014, a pet project of Vladimir Putin’s. Russian officials have reacted

with indignant (some might say Olympian) anger, calling the ban part of a Western campaign to
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keep Russia down. Over 100 athletes banned from the Rio Olympics after proof of a state-run

doping program also need to worry about the health impacts of steroids. So do those who used

the team’s drug cocktail but were never tested and caught.urther revelations in the Russian

doping scandal have rocked the upcoming Olympic Games. Over 100 Russian athletes who

would have competed in Rio have been barred due to an investigation into a state-run doping

program that involved administering a cocktail of anabolic steroids to the country’s world-class

athletes.While the scope of the Russian team doping program, which stretched to over 30 winter

and summer sports, came as a shock, anabolic steroid use is nothing new when it comes to high-

level athletes. From the East German Olympic team to pro American baseball players to the Tour

de France, anabolic steroids have shown up all over professional sports.

Everyone from sports writers to ethics professors writing in journals have proposed lifting the

ban on steroid abuse in the face of constant rule breaking. If there is no way to level the playing

field and stop performance enhancing drug abuse, they reason, why not allow it and regulate it

for safety? But anabolic steroid use can have lasting implications for the many athletes both on

and off the international stage who take them. For many of the Russian Olympians who weren’t

tested and caught in this latest investigation, the potential health effects will still haunt them for

the rest of their lives. While the muscle boosting effects of doping are well known, it is the

mental effects, and what happens when someone finally stops using, that are often ignored.

Anabolic steroids don’t just make people stronger and faster, they also help give them the feeling

of a runner’s high. Anabolic steroids make exercise feel very good, which is where part of their

addictive potential lies, explains Hildebrandt. Using the drugs discovered in the Russian doping

scandal once or twice would not have any lasting effects, but long term use is another story.

Anabolic steroids break down white matter in the brain, says Hildebrandt.The mental effects of
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anabolic steroids can differ from person to person. In general, when using, it makes people more

aggressive with a lower tolerance for frustration. How that manifests depends on what the person

was like before they started using, says Hildebrandt. If someone was not an aggressive person,

they are not going to start bar fights all of a sudden, but they will be more irritable and quicker to

react, he explains.While they are using, the flood of androgens to the body from anabolic steroids

also comes with a host of physical symptoms like testicular shrinkage and breast development in

men, and deepened voice, reduced breast size, balding and facial hair growth in women, along

with a number of reproductive problems.The International Olympic Committee said that the 23

newly banned athletes are from five different sports and six countries. None have been officially

named. However the Guardian understands the British Olympic Association has not been

contacted about any of its athletes failing tests.The International Olympic Committee has

suspended the Russian Olympic Committee with immediate effect, essentially banning the

country from the upcoming Winter Olympics over Russia's system of state-supported cheating

by athletes using performance-enhancing drugs.

Russian athletes can compete in the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the IOC said
Tuesday but the athletes will have to pass strict scrutiny, and instead of wearing their nation's
uniform, they will compete under the title Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR). It is no secret
that performance-enhancing drugs have been used by Olympians for decades, or that athletes will
do almost anything to gain a competitive edge. (Chicago physician and author Bob Goldman has
conducted the above survey every two years since 1982 and has gotten more or less the same
response each time.) What is surprising is that 25 years after the introduction of supposedly
rigorous drug testing of Olympic athletes, the use of banned performance-enhancing substances
has apparently become more widespread, and effective, than ever. "There may be some
sportsmen who can win gold medals without taking drugs, but there are very few," says Dutch
physician Michel Karsten, who claims to have prescribed anabolic steroids to hundreds of world-
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class athletes from swimming, track and field and the non-Olympic sport of powerlifting over the
last 25 years. "If you are especially gifted, you may win once, but from my experience you can't
continue to win without drugs. The field is just too filled with drug users."(Yeager 1997). The
word STEROIDS calls to mind 325-pound NFL linemen who not so many years ago weighed
250 pounds, or weightlifters with trapezius muscles that ascend like mountains from their
shoulders to their ears, or sprinters with quadriceps like steel cables. But the use of steroids--and
other, more exotic substances, such as human growth hormone has spread to almost every sport,
from major league baseball to college basketball to high school football. It is the dirty and
universal secret of sports, amateur and pro, as the millennium draws near (Yaegar 1997).
Although aware of the dangers of using performance-enhancing drugs, athletes continue to use
them to gain a competitive edge. The practice is so widespread that there are even "gurus" who
advise athletes on which drugs will bolster their performance and how to evade the law.
International sports organizations do test for drugs, but some drugs cannot be detected by the
standard urine test. When it comes down to it I believe that non-harmful performance
enhancement drugs should be allowed in professional sports. They produce the same effect as
the high end training equipment use today and if they are not banned then neither should drugs.
Although I don’t believe harmful drugs should be legal in the games but in the end I think the
choice is up to the athletes themselves.

Work Cited

Mitten, Matthew J. "Is Drug Testing of Athletes Necessary?" USA Today (Farmingdale) Vol.134

No.2726, Nov, 2005, pp. 60-62. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Kilgore, Adam. "Olympians in Sport Angered by Doping Charge, Say Benefits could be.."

Washington Post, 20 Feb, 2018, pp. D.10. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.
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Nightingale, Bob. "Past Time for Bonds, Clemens to be in Hall." USA TODAY, 23 Jan, 2018, pp.

C.1. SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks.sirs.com.

Wigmore, T. (2018, 11 Jan). Why keeping cricket free from drugs cheats will be harder than

ever.. Telegraph.Co.Uk. Retrieved from https://sks.sirs.com

Robinson, D. (2017, 12 Oct). NFL injuries: Use of PEDs is real culprit. Deseret News Retrieved

from https://sks.sirs.com

"Whatever it Takes." Economist, Feb, 2018, pp. 57-58. SIRS Issues Researcher,

https://sks.sirs.com.

Juday, Maeve. "To Dope, Or Not to Dope?" University Wire, 15 Feb, 2018. SIRS Issues

Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

"Dope on the Slopes." Economist, Feb, 2018, pp. 14. SIRS Issues Researcher,

https://sks.sirs.com.

Shrestha, Nikisun. "Doping: Unfair Play." University Wire, 06 Feb, 2018. SIRS Issues

Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Cashmore, Ellis. "Why Sport should Allow Doping." CNN Wire Service, 10 Nov, 2015. SIRS

Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Duncan, David E. "An Easy Way to Improve the Olympics: Make Performance Enhancements.."

Newsweek, Feb, 2014. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Allen, John. Issues in Society: How Harmful are Performance-Enhancing Drugs? Issues in

Society: How Harmful Are Performance-Enhancing Drugs?, 2017. SIRS Issues Researcher,

https://sks.sirs.com.

Bamberger, Michael, and Don Yaeger. "Over the Edge." Sports Illustrated, Apr, 1997, pp. 60+.

SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

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Rothman, Joshua. "Why Not Dope?" Boston Globe, 15 July, 2012, pp. K.1. SIRS Issues

Researcher, h.com.ttps://sks.sirs