The Negative Implications of Performance-Enhancing Drugs
Professional sports are extremely competitive in today’s society. In this highly competitive world, athletes are inclined to increase their competitive edge through the use of performance enhancing drugs. This, however, leads to many negative implications. Drug use in competitive sports not only hinders the integrity and fairness of the game; it leads to many health risks amongst athletes. Some of these health risks include stunted growth, elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, addiction, serious heart disease, and increased aggression (Steroidabuse).
Performance-enhancing drugs do not only pose serious health risks and problems for professional athletes, but can extend problems to emerging athletes as well. This can be seen at both the high school and collegiate level. These younger athletes seek to emulate the way professional athletes perform. I feel that in order to preserve the fairness of sports and prevent unnecessary deaths of many athletes, young and old, who use performance enhancing drugs, initiatives must be made to stop professional athletes from using such substances.
There’s a highly debatable argument that surrounds whether steroids should be used in professional sports. To understand why doping truly undermines the integrity of the sport world we have to look at the meaning behind playing a sport. In our society, winning something has to be justified. Something is justified by fair treatment. Athletes can justify a win when they themselves work to accomplish it, on a level playing field. When an athlete takes drugs to perform better, the playing field is automatically outweighed. When drugs are involved, the player can’t justify a win on individual accomplishment; the drugs are what accomplished a goal. We see society respond to this unfair “winning” in baseball in the 1990s – “the steroid era”. During this time, the MLB experienced an increase in offensive output resulting in unprecedented home run totals by some of the power hitters of the decade. Note that steroids had been part of the MLB’s banned substance list since 1991 but testing wasn’t required until 2003. So athletes during the 1990s, such as Jose Canseco, Mark McGuire, and Sammy Sosa were never actually tested for doping, but in 2005 Jose Canseco released a book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, which shed light on the steroid issue during the 1990s. Players during this era, who exhibited extreme prowess in the sport of baseball, soon faced some consequences for their apparent steroid use. Players like McGuire, who admitted to performance enhancing drug use, and Rafael Palmeiro, who failed a drug test after denying use in congress, fell short in the election of the Baseball Hall of Fame (ESPN).
The Essay on Performance Enhancing Drugs 2
Many athletes of all ages are turning towards performance enhancing drugs as a way of improving their performance by giving them that extra edge. This is not only wrong but its cheating and harmful to the athlete. Performance enhancing drugs have been around for hundreds of years. The Incas of the South America country Peru used the burned leaves of coca trees to give them great amounts of energy ...
The bottom-line regarding “the steroid era” is that those involved with the election process didn’t find a justifiable solution to these players’ actions. It wasn’t their individual accomplishment that possibly got them into the hall of fame; it was their drug use that exhibited their prowess. The election committee realized this and responded appropriately. It understood that to maintain the integrity of the sport, the focus should stay on the athlete, not the drugs. (ESPN)
The health risks alone regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs should immediately answer the question whether there should be a ban of these drugs in professional sports. The death rate amongst professional wrestlers explains a lot. Wrestlers are dying young at a staggering rate due to the fact that performance enhancing drugs are not banned as they are in football, basketball and baseball. USA TODAY did a study and concluded that, “They [wrestlers] are 12 times more likely to die from heart disease than other Americans…wrestlers are about 20 times more likely to die before 45 than are pro football players, another profession that’s exceptionally hard on the body” (Swartz).
The Term Paper on Steroids In Sports Today
... the root of the steroid phenomenon? Salaries in professional sports continue to rise and steroid use among professional athletes has been increasing: this ... the next level without steroids. All many young athlete have to do is look at today's sports stars to see the ... development of muscles. Athletes take the drugs "to primarily increase muscle mass and strength" (Wadler 2). Steroids do not, however, ...
The use of steroids is highly encouraged in professional wrestling. Former wrestler, Bruno Sammartino, once made a comment stating, “There was a joke: If you did not test positive for steroids, you were fired” (Swartz).
We can conclude here that when a sport encourages the use of performance enhancing drugs in their athletes, the consequences of death and health risks are highly prevalent. What kind of society would we be if all sports were to legalize performance-enhancing drugs with the knowledge of these death rates in professional wrestling? Barbaric is the first word that comes to mind.
Between 1991 and 2003, steroid use doubled among high school students in the United States. According to a report given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “More than 6 percent, or as many as 1 million U.S. students, said they had taken steroids for at least one cycle” (Weaver).
There has been a growing concern by parents who attribute their children’s suicides to steroid use. Brenda and Frank Marrero found their son, Efrain, in his bedroom one day with a bullet through his head, he was 19. Three weeks earlier, they were told by Efrain that he was using steroids. When his parents said he had to stop, Efrain’s response was, “But Barry Bonds does it” (Wilson).
Brenda and Frank didn’t realize that Efrain had been surrounded by steroids for quite some time. They also didn’t realize that steroid withdrawal could cause problems with teenage hormones. Previous suicides have also been attributed by parents to steroid use by young athletes – Rob Garibaldi died in 2002 at age 24 and Taylor Hooton died in 2003 at age 17 (Wilson).
Both were baseball players who committed suicide shortly after they stopped using steroids. These statistics are depressing, yet, explain a lot. It’s fair to say that professional athletes inspire these younger athletes to use such substances. Efrain even stated how Barry Bond used steroids so he should be able to as well.
The Essay on “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman
Although “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman and “Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike are both about the reflection of honorary greatness achieved in their lives as athletes, the speakers possess different views and attitudes towards their characters in each poem. In “To an Athlete Dying Young” the speaker shares a positive reflection of the characters accomplishments that takes place due ...
It’s clear to see the negative implications that have arisen from steroid use by professional athletes. Their desire to excel has caused unfairness in sports, increased health risks among athletes, and an increase in suicides by younger athletes. In order to prevent such implications from occurring, bans on performance enhancing drugs must be implemented on all professional sports because they’re the ones that encourage the rest of society to mimic their ways. If changes are not made soon, the trend could possibly progress at an undesirable rate.
Works Cited
“Dangers of Steroid Abuse – Steroid Abuse .com.” Steroid Abuse – Steroidabuse.com. Web. .
“The Steroids Era – MLB Topics – ESPN.” ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports. Web. .
Swartz, Jon. “USATODAY.com – High Death Rate Lingers behind Fun Facade of Pro Wrestling.” News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World – USATODAY.com. 12 Mar. 2004. Web. .
Weaver, Jane. “Steroid Addiction a Risk for Young Athletes – Health – Mental Health – Msnbc.com.” Msnbc.com – Breaking News, Science and Tech News, World News, US News, Local News- Msnbc.com. Web. .
Wilson, Duff. “The New York Times Sports Beyond Balco: Steroids Are Blamed in Suicide of Young Athlete.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 10 Mar. 2005. Web. .
