The article “drugs in sports: why the fuss?” was published in 2000 to inform public about why drug related controversies exaggerated in sports. Author Lan Ritchie explains that in every Olympic year sport is overwhelm with stories of banned substance use to enhance performance as drugs threaten both the health of athletes and the integrity of sport. In my point of view, athletes who use banned substance to enhance performance are cheaters because they ruin the values of sports.
As Lan Ritchie explain, using drugs to enhance performance might just make sense the problem of drug use in sports knock over due to ideals and values of sports. He tried to explain that banned substances are dangerous to the health of athletes but not more than some
Athletes use performance enhancing drugs to boost their game. The professionals who use these drugs are ruining the integrity of the game. Many people don’t understand why professional athletes would go to such extreme measures to be better when they have already proven themselves. Athletes are just taking away from their natural ability by using these dangerous drugs. The risk of using performance enhancing drugs is a lot greater than the reward, because an athlete’s reputation could be tarnished and their career ruined. Money is one of the major reasons why players use them; if they perform at levels higher than what their natural abilities could do they will be offered a large sum of money.
The benefits of using some types of performance-enhancing drugs are obvious. Professional athletes have a very 'short shelf life' as competitors in most sports and must cash in on their talents as soon as possible. For Olympic athletes, the
Performance enhancement drugs also promote cheating in sports to be allowed. The violation of cheating in a competitive aspect of sports gives an unfair advantage from the opposition they’re going against (Mumford 2). The offense of using these drugs in sporting events is that it’s against the regulations that the athletes must proceed to follow to able to continue playing the sport (Mumford 2). According to the evidence it shows how the use of performance-enhancement drugs is cheating in sports. “One accepts the lusory goal in sport, an inefficient means of achieving some task, precisely because without the constraint of rules, game playing would
Doping in sports has caused a lot of controversy throughout the years in the sports world from youth sports to the professionals. The World Anti-Doping Agency does their best to catch all the drug users but falls short with some people. This causes for an “unfair” advantage and goes against the true value of sport. It can make these players stronger and more athletic which causes more excitement for the fans to watch, more revenue for teams, and growing popularity. Using performance-enhancing drugs is banned in almost every sport, but with the allowed use of them could bring to the players and the sports teams themselves, could outweigh the negative effects of them being used in sports.
Substance Use & Misuse, written by Michael S. Bahrke (2012) examines the issue of drug use by athletes and intervention programs effectiveness. Bahrke (2012) clearly delineates the difficulties faced by doping athletes, the athletic organization, and the public. Sports organization depend on the athlete's performance and positive public perception to flourish. Therefore, it is not in the athlete best interest to admit or seek help with drug addiction because of most organizations’ policies regarding doping, most are in line with the WADA banning
Nobody would argue that the quality of sports is basically dependent upon the level of skill of its players. As the skills of the players improve, so too does the quality of the game. So why are substances that would further athletes’ skills beyond human levels so ostracized? Doping is the practice of using steroids and other illegal substances to boost performance in sports and athletics. The debate of the morality of such substances has been going on for decades and continues to affect the world of sports in many ways. At the moment, steroids and all other performance-enhancing drugs are banned in their entirety from nearly all sports in most countries of the world. Scandalous lawsuits involving athletes abusing substances are constantly popping up, usually involving players and athletes that were considered fan-favorites or even heroes. Performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in sports because it would make it easier to control them, allow athletes to perform better, and widespread use of steroids would allow more solid research and advancements in the pharmaceutical field.
In Chapter 18 of Social Issues in Sport, Woods mentions how the first encounter with performance-enhancing drugs dates back to ancient times. This portrays how the usage of these drugs has become common within the sports world. Despite the fact that using performance-enhancing drugs is unfair in sport, I feel that it portrays the risk athletes are willing to take to win and be the best. This week we learned about the serious consequences that occur if an athlete is caught taking these medications. The consequences of taking these drugs range from getting their awards confiscated to legal action. There are similar consequences when it comes to situations involving the act of bribery. For example, during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the entire committee was replaced because of allegations that members were trying to influence voters through illegal means. Thus, when it comes to cheating in sport, it is not only athletes who engage in this deviant behavior, but also outside
Being an athlete means that there would be an encounter, at some point in their career, with immense pressure from peers or coaches, to excel, to win. Sometimes professional athletes would begin desire to be the best, to become stronger, faster and better. Doing so would help their careers and finances, it could even guarantee fame for the athletes. Their cravings for success and better athletic performance could be because of either personal reasons or for material gain, such as medals and money. Some of them even turn to performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids or anesthetics, their reasons for doing so are usually to lose weight, to gain more muscle or to relax and stimulate their bodies. It’s not a surprise that there are preventions for athletes to use performance-enhancement drugs, even consequences for the rule-breakers. Yet why do they still risk getting caught, and risk achieving physical damage to their bodies.
They argue that performance enhancing drugs remove the morality and dignity within sport as the element of raw talent and skill disappears. Antidoping laws generally exist in order to provide a safe and fair environment for participation in sport (Allhoff 2009). These laws should prevent and protect athletes from subjecting themselves to health risks through the use of performance enhancing drugs. It is believed that performance enhancing drugs have the power to overcome differences in natural talents and the willingness to sacrifice and persevere in the quest to perfect those talents. These drugs are dangerous and although certain drugs have the potential to increase athletic performance, they carry the risk of side effects, which may include death and life-long morbidity. Sports that hold historical records and comparisons with them would become irrelevant by drug-aided athletes who would completely obliterate the old standards (Orchard 2006). A cycle would begin where athletes would be encouraged to take more and more drugs in other to keep up with the rapidly growing standard that comes with performance enhancement. It would create pressure for more athletes to ‘cheat’, undermining the basis for the competitions at stake and exacerbating the gap between those who can afford enhancements and those who cannot (Juengst 2015). Ethically, the sense of fair competition would be lost if performance enhancement was decriminalised as there would be no ceiling as to how far one could go to enhance themselves chemically for their chosen sport. Sport without antidoping laws would also disadvantage further those athletes who wanted to compete at an elite level without risking their health. Performance enhancement has the potential to create a public health catastrophe, whilst we would
Doping has widely become known as the use of banned substances and practices by sports personnel particularly athletes in an attempt to improve sporting performances. No sensible fan of sport today denies the prevalence of drugs in virtually every major sport, yet none would argue they can ever be eliminated completely. Money alone would seem to guarantee that much. High profile athletes today are competing for high stakes, not just millions, but dozens of millions. The fear of losing everything career, opportunity, contracts, name, fame, and money is pushing more sportsmen all over the world to use performance enhancing drugs, mainly
This is a material world promoting material values, thus meaning that it should not be surprising to see individuals being willing to do everything in their power in order to make profits. Or should it? The sports community today is troubled by a series of athletes who have yielded to society's pressures and abandoned their principles with the purpose of taking performance enhancing drugs. It is difficult to determine if it would be normal for the masses to judge these individuals, concerning that they are actually one of the reasons for which these people have come to consider taking performance enhancing drugs in the first place. However, the only ones who can judge them are other hard-working sportspersons who have stood by their principles and who respect the idea of sport in general.
‘Olympic track star Marion Jones was sentenced in a federal court to six months in prison.’ (Kelly and Rao, 2008) The reason why Jones was guilty is because of the use of performance enhancing drugs since 1999. More and more famous athletes prove to have used banned drugs to enhance their performance. At the same time, the role that the anti-doping agency is more and more important in the world wide games, such as Olympic Game, Tour de France. Nowadays, whether the performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) should be legalized has sparked a heated debate. However, the use of PEDs is morally wrong and it should be banned in sports. This essay will demonstrate three main points which explain the
The last reason why drugs should be banned in sports is because of the many teenagers that are abusing them. According to the National Institutes of Health, a half- million kids under the age of 18 are abusing steroids. It seems that we’re raising a generation of individuals destined to be highly aggressive or severely depressed. Most teenagers do not know the effects that steroids can cause. They lower good cholesterol and raises bad cholesterol. That gives users a better risk
Many people believe that drug use in professional athletics is not a serious problem, however it is more widespread and serious than people think. In professional athletics the use of drugs is looked upon as somewhat of a serious problem, but is also very discrete and low key. Every once in a while one might see a prominent figure in a certain sport being reprimanded for the use of some outlawed drug, however this is just one of the many who happened to get caught. Athletes today seem to find no moral problem with using performance-enhancing drugs, or in other words cheating. Also many of them feel that because they are "stars" there should be no repercussions for their illegal activity.
More and more, of our society views winning more important than itself. Success in competition brings status, popularity, and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today’s athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will make them winners. Unfortunately, the drugs of today are caught up in the high stakes competition frenzy. Of this reality, teenage use of performance improved drugs is growing ever more popular. In colleges and in the professional league a lot of people are doing drugs and its ruining their health and life. Also, if some teenagers take performance drugs they are making them better than everyone else giving themselves an advantage over everyone else which is cheating, so why should they get money