The Ultimate Price for Glory The sports world is filled with endless competition with everyone trying to be the absolute best, so is greatness worth risking their own life? With the constant push from coaches, family members, fans, and even themselves, it is no wonder that athletes sometimes experiment with performance enhancers. There are many different types of Performance Enhancing Drugs, and each kind has different effects on the human body. There are many different categories of Performance Enhancing Drugs, a few include; Anabolic steroids which unnaturally build muscle at a much more rapid rate, Stimulants which can improve athletic performance and endurance while decreasing fatigue, and Painkillers which can allow an athlete to perform …show more content…
Propaganda and the use of glittering generalities may have a way of blinding us of the truths that surround PED’s, however, there is still a way of digging out the answers. One of the most horrific truths is that an athlete will almost endure anything to achieve ultimate greatness, even if it will take their own life. In the article “Gaming by Games”, by Jim Schmaltz he states, “There's an old saying among critics of Olympic drug-testing standards: How do you discover who's using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)? Find the ones wearing the medals.” (Schmaltz). This saying that Schmaltz states is not only a reminder of the way the sports world of today is, but it is also a sad truth of what it takes to succeed in sports. This example of an Olympic medalist; someone who is viewed as hard working individual who has been training for almost four years for this exact moment, is nothing but a performance enhancing drug user. “‘Death for glory’ mindset is known as the Goldman Dilemma, and it's the reason athletes take enormous risks for their health reputations, and career -- even if they don't want to.” (Schmaltz). This quote specifically illustrates the terrible truth that comes along with being an athlete in which health is a risk worth taking in the journey for gold. The use of a PED is an extreme health risk; however, athletes will still consider using this because …show more content…
An article by the name of “The Doping Dilemma”, by Michael Shermer gives a table that illustrates the many side effects that come along with each performance enhancing drug. For instance, a PED that enhances oxygen transfer will have side effects that include; blood clots, heart attack, stroke, and a PED that aids in the build of muscle and bone can cause; liver damage, breast development in men, and attitude changes (Shermer). Both categories of PED’s are only a few of the different kinds of drugs, this means that this is only a fraction of the side effects that are related to the use of PED’s. On the online article, “Adverse Health Consequences of Performance -Enhancing Drugs: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement”, the authors indicate “Users of high doses of AAS may be more susceptible to rage, antisocial and violent behaviors, and suicidality. Sharing of needles and other paraphernalia and unprotected sex may increase the risk of infections such as hepatitis and HIV. The use of PEDs, especially in conjunction with analgesics or stimulants, may allow athletes to engage in extremely high-intensity exercise, increasing the risk of musculoskeletal injuries.” (Pope). The exact truth and not only physical, but mental health issues that are associated with the abuse of performance enhancing drugs are a real occurrence in all of
The competitive drive to win at all cost is fierce among athletes. Winning at all cost often includes using one of many performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids. Many athletes use performance enhancing drugs, like steroids, to achieve higher goals and set higher records than other drug-free successful athletes. Although athletes are performing at higher levels when using such drugs, what is the cost? Finally anabolic steroids should remain banned from sports because their use results in many harmful side effects; because their use violates sports regulations, and because their use can cause death.
PEDs and steroids provide better stamina, stronger muscles, and more muscular endurance. "Society cares because steroid use is a form of cheating. Since steroids work so well, they create an unfair advantage for those who take them, and this breaks the social contract athletes have implicitly agreed to: We are going to have a fair contest. There are things we can and cannot do. Even if there were a safe performance-enhancing substance, if it weren't available to everybody, using it would still be cheating" (Dillingham). The end game will be actions that are increasingly violent, extreme, and meaningless, practiced by a class of chemical and or genetic mutant gladiators. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is not accidental; it is planned and deliberate with the sole objective of getting an unfair
PED use has been a controversial topic over the past few decades in professional, both professional and non-professional. There are many positive and negative effects of the use of these type of drugs. The drugs have been said to even out the playing field if the availability was open to everybody, get the body bigger in a shorter amount of time than just training, and make for better and longer lasting events. They have also been said to eliminate the moral and principle of sports, not everybody can respond to the drugs the same way, and they may be linked to long-term negative effects on the human body. Other debates that have been brought up are the influence of these athletes on younger generations and the representation of the the club or team that these athletes play for. It has been a long and controversial road and debate over PED’s.
Famed writer Grantland Rice once wrote, “When the great scorer comes to mark against your name. He'll mark not won or lost but how you played the game” (World of quotes, 1). That buoyant attitude of selflessness and heart has slowly diminished throughout the course of time. Now, George Allen’s booming voice, former coach of the Washington Redskins, runs throughout head of America, “Only winners are truly alive. Winning is living. Every time you win, you’re reborn. When you lose, you die a little” (Harris, 67). It is with this frame of mind that athletes are pushed beyond the edge of reason. Although peer pressure and pressure from coaches are central reasons why one may use steroids, most users begin using in order to improve their self image or excel in sports. Ethics, integrity, and legality aside, some athletes will stop at nothing to attain “that extra edge”.
Former Notre Dame Football coach, Knute Rockne, once said, “Show me a good and gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure,” (“The Future of Steroids”). The importance of winning in sports and being the greatest has grown immensely. This unquenchable desire to be stronger, faster, and more agile than the opponent, has caused many athletes to stop at nothing to be the best; this pressure has caused athletes to take banned and illegal substances known as performance-enhancing drugs (Performance-enhancing drugs) to achieve maximum strength and speed. The use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs in sports has been obvious to many spectators and sports enthusiasts for quite some time now, and athletes who have been found guilty of taking
Groups such as the Clean Sports Collective understand the dangers of PEDs, and were created with the purpose of helping athletes stay clean (Will 2017 be the Year to Defeat Sports Doping). As previously mentioned steroids can cause shrinking of testicles and development of breasts in males. Along with this, steroids can also cause decreased sperm count with possible impotence, masculinization in females, development of acne or jaundice, and many other effects. These side effects are even recognized by the government, which have made some steroids illegal to the general public (How Dangerous are Performance Enhancing Drugs?). If regular citizens are blocked from certain drugs, athletes should not be an exception. Steroids make humans unnatural beings, which shows how dangerous they are. Steroids inject 100 times the testosterone found naturally in a male body (How Dangerous are Performance Enhancing Drugs?). Along with this, taking steroids, gene doping, and other forms of PEDs are dangerous just to take them the wrong way. Theodore Friedmann, the head of a WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) panel on gene doping in a 2010 interview, said on the dangers of gene doping, “The fact is that the material and information that the athletes have is very sparse and very incomplete and is obviously given to them with the hope of encouraging them to do something
Performance Enhancers have the capability to change your life forever, whether you’re a first time user or a consistent abuser. These enhancing drugs have a very large impact on the human body. Not only do they have a massive variety of ways of taking over one's circulatory system- either by injection or ingestion- the drug also has the ability to ruin an individual's body or help them medically, all depending on the enhancer being used. PED’s have the ability or potential to drastically alter the human body and biological functions, including the ability to considerably improve athletic performance in certain instances.
If you’re a big sports fan like me, we’ve all at least heard and/or said “Wow, what is he taking? He’s so good!” when talking about an athlete. Most of the time we’re just kidding when we joke that an athlete must be taking some kind of drug to play at such an elite level. Other times are suspicions are actually true when an athlete admits to taking some form of performance enhancing drug (PED). For example, Mark McGwire used androstenedione (andro), a then-legal steroid precursor, to help shatter baseball’s thirty-seven-year-old single-season home run record. According to Whitman (2008), who wrote an article for the University of Illinois Review pertaining to the use of PEDs in sports, “PEDs have tainted many sports, including track and field,
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.
Even athletes aren’t perfect, taking drugs for sports can give brilliant results in the beginning but there are always side effects. The side effect for Performance- enhancing drugs would be “Suspension.” “Having a hero or an idol to disappoint their fans.”These are a few short term effects that may lead to a long term effect. “ PEDS can cause impotence worsening acne,balding and steroid rage. PEDS can also stunt growth in adolescents.”” Heart and liver damage and an increased risk of blood clots.” More examples and long term effects to PEDS would be the cause of “Acne, Liver damage, roid rage increased, hypertension…” Athletes start off so young and so strong but later they lose sight of what truly needs to be done. They’re not completely thinking through the during and after effects and then if they wait too long to fix such issue that by the time it’s brought to their attention, It’s already too late and the issue has gotten worse. No matter if you get caught then or don’t get caught at all; one of these athletes will soon get caught and that’ll be the worst of
‘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
In sports, the competitive drive to win can be very intensive between athletes. Winning in the game usually brings rewards to athletes both financially and psychologically. Such temptations and the consecutive pressures faced by athletes to excel in the sporting events, attempts to achieve a rival edge especially when the application of performance enhancing drugs by athletes in sports activities has becoming a new trend and relatively common. Performance enhancing drugs are used so athletes could achieve better results with least efforts, even as their health and their athletic careers will be placed in danger. That explains why athletes, sports people and body builders turn to performanc enhancing drugs.
Performance-enhancing drugs (PED 's) have been an issue for many decades now for the medical and sports field. Olympic and professional athletes have been using them to gain an upper hand on the competition, but some may ask if it 's really worth it? Studies show that performance-enhancing drugs have been proven to negatively affect the health of athletes who take them. Simply put, performance-enhancing drugs could either improve athletic performance or can be extremely dangerous, in certain situations, deadly. There have been strict rules and drug testing in the professional sporting organizations, as well as in world competitions. For example, in the summer of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, in two of the
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.
Performance Drug EssayPerformance enhancing drugs are commonly used by athletes when they want to improve in any sport or activity. These drugs consist of steroids all the way to meldonium. Using these drugswhen you play sports competitively is extremely frowned upon and is also illegal. Anyone who is tested and is found to be guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs will be banned from doing any sports competitively. Depending on the severity of your case you may be banned for life or maybe a few years. Taking these drugs is taken very seriously because it can be very dangerous and in some cases deadly. Some side effects of taking performance enhancing drugsare balding, rage, acne, and impotence in men. When taken by an adolescent it