Steroids Persuasive Speech

Many children all across the United States and other countries try to replicate their favorite superstar athlete. Many athletes become the children’s idol and once the child learns that the athlete has cheated the game the athlete plays the child no longer looks up to the athlete. It is almost gotten to the point where no athlete that excels in a particular sport can be trusted. Every time a single athlete becomes great at their respective sport, speculation of steroid abuse immediately follows.

Attention Getter: (PowerPoint image) When we see someone extremely muscular, we wonder is the person using steroids?

A number of prominent athletes have recently experienced a 'fall from grace,' because of the revelation that they used performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps the most famous example of this phenomenon is Lance Armstrong. In an advertisement for Nike that his former sponsor now no doubt regrets, Armstrong is shown asking the viewer "what am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day." Professional cycling is often cited as one of the sports in which doping is most endemic to its subculture, however a number of professional sports have been embroiled in drug scandals. Because of the many revelations about the number of baseball players who used steroids to get their record-breaking statistics, the 1990s are often called the 'steroid' era of baseball. The Olympic track and field star Marian Jones was stripped of her medals, after finally admitting to the use of performance-enhancing drugs (Lardon 2008). "Despite the health risks, and despite the regulating bodies' attempts to eliminate drugs from sport, the use of illegal substances is widely known to be rife. It hardly raises an eyebrow now when some famous athlete fails a dope test" (Savulescu, Foddy, & Clayton 2004).

The Olympics now have various organizations and committees delegated to testing for and eliminating the use of performance enhancing drugs. The most recent Olympic committee for the Games in Vancouver was partnered with the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, L’Institut national de la recherche scientifique — Institut Armand-Frappier, the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and LifeLabs to collect and test approximately 2450 blood and urine samples (“Anti-Doping Initiatives”). Their meticulousness and commitment was most definitely justified. Olympic athletes implicitly agree to a social contract of fair competition. Those athletes who take steroids have an unfair advantage over those who do not, and therefore these athletes are breaking this social contract.

There are many health risk for taking steroids such as increases chances for disease, physical and emotional dangers . Abusing steroids lead to bad cholesterol (livestrong).. Other time it turns into liver disease and can sometimes turn into possible liver cancer (livestrong). Steroids also cause physical dangers. Steroids cause the left heart ventricle it enlarge high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes.steroids contribute the development of CVD which changes how much cholesterol gets to the blood (livestrong). One of the common damages from steroids is tendon ruptures which is some sport cases and cause an end to a career (livestrong). The reason steroids cause the tendon to rupture is because it causes testosterone to rise causing a growth spurt during puberty and adolescence providing the signals to stop growth as well. and adolescence and provide the signals to stop growth as well (livestrong). Causing high sex hormones that can prematurely signal the bone to stop growing causing the tendon to rupture

Anabolic pose a ton of risk while associating with them as they are addictive and can pose health risks with abuse leading people to believe that they are bad and should be banned across all sports and taking them off doctors prescriptions, numerous risks involve shrinking of the testicals, heart conditions, strokes, blood clots and other physical defects.Leading to bad physical proportion and one example is men growing breasts and as said before shrinking of testicals leading to a lower sex drive, infertility testicular cancer and as serious as death. These are all risks associated with abuse of anabolic steroids where Corticosteroids risks are likely Bone density, ulcers, osteoporosis and numerous types of infections. (William A. Darity, Jr 2008, Brenda Wilmoth Lerner K. Lee Lerner 2012, Elizabeth Magill 2011, Barbra C. 2007, Stacey L. Blachford and Kristine Krapp,

“…medical researchers believe that between 1 and 3 million youths and adults have taken anabolic steroids in one form or another specifically to enhance their looks or athletic performances,” stated Nuwer (Nuwer, 61). As astounding as these figures are, the number of performance drug users is steadily increasing. With this progressively increasing numbers, it is projected that millions more will use steroids in the immediate future (Newer, 61). Athletes have always sought an advantage in competition even if ignoring the law and their health if necessary. Using drugs of any sort to facilitate an athlete’s athletic ability should be illegal. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only detrimental to the user but it also creates an

Background: Although people have been using steroids over 50 years, it wasn't until we started seeing headlines about athletes using steroids that it started receiving attention.

In the days when steroids were only being used by body builders and professional wrestlers, stories about performance enhancing drugs could only be found on the back pages of the newspapers. When former Oakland Raiders All-Pro Lyle Alzado admitted to steroid use in a 1991 Sports Illustrated article the whispers about what professional athletes were using steroids began to get louder. (Puma, 2005) Finally, in 2002, when Caminiti, a former MVP, came clean, two things were clear; athletes in all sports were using these drugs, and that they worked. The fact that steroid use had permeated our national pastime combined with the media explosion of the internet and 24 hour a day sports talk created a perfect storm which created the biggest sports story of the new millennium so far. However, two other facts remained clear, performance enhancing drugs were old news, and athletes in all sports from all over the world had been using them for years.

Summary Statement: In short we now know the history behind steroids; the different types admissions of

Athletes get caught doping in a multitude of ways, most commonly via a drug test. Although most athletes get caught by a drug test, some of the big time athletes like Alex Rodriguez get caught by word of mouth, meaning one too many people knew what he was doing and it eventually came out and he is now

Professional sports are a competition between the greatest athletes in the world. And when I go to a game, that’s exactly what I expect to see. Sports are entertainment. There is no room for purity and respecting the limits that athletes had in the past. Modern athletes should utilize all the resources that they have available to them. This includes steroids, which enhance an athlete’s performance. After all, performance is what really matters.

Drug Laws in America are always changing to keep up with the new drugs and the epidemic of prescription drug abuse and overdose. In this country the government has to try harder than ever to protect the people from themselves while staying in the laws. The Federal government has done a lot of things over the years to fight the war on drugs and effectively change drug laws in America with each branch of government doing its part they are doing everything they can to make sure people are safe and stay healthy.

However, steroids should remain illegal because they physically deteriorate the whole body system. When injected one risks the chances of developing hematoma and contracting AIDS. In women steroids contribute to the growth of facial hair, enlargements of the clitoris, shrinkage of the uterus, sterility, deepening of the voice, decrease in breast size and irregularity of the menstrual cycle. In men steroids cause shrinkage of the testicles, decrease in sperm count, sterility, impotence, prostate enlargement and growth of female breast. In both men and women hair loss, liver ailments, acne, atherosierosis and cancer are very common. This dangerous drug shortens the life span up to twenty years and increases the chance of obtaining diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. The side effects and reactions from enduring anabolic steroids are endless.

Abstract:  With the increase of competition has also come the need to become bigger and stronger than the opponent.  The use of steroids among athletes has caused the focus of the game to change.  No longer does an athlete want to win by doing their best, but they want to become bigger and have an advantage over the opponent.  Ultimately, all athletes feel that they need to use performance-enhancing drugs to compete at the same level. Despite all of the warnings and information on performance-enhancing drugs, athletes continue to use them and overlook the potential health risks associated with steroids.