Preformances-Enhancing Drugs In Sports

Athletes Will Never Stop Using Performance Ð'- Enhancing Drugs

The crusade against the use of performance- enhancing drugs in sports is being waged by the International Athletic Associations and their corporate sponsors, who publicly maintain that drugs violate the moral borders of clean athletic competition. However for the sporting organizations that strive for more fans and profits, they encourage drug use by demanding higher standards of achievements from athletes, only to condemn the athletes who get caught. By doing this, the sporting organizations are sending a mixed message to the athlete. By encouraging the athlete to take these drugs they are saying it's ok, But if you get caught using these these drugs we as a organization will condemn you and do what is necessary to cover up. To protect themselves from ridicule. Drug use in any form is wrong. And for our professional athletes to be using them is not only wrong but unmoral also. When our children look-up to these athletes and want to be like them. What message are they sending when they get caught using drugs? That it is alright to use drugs to get ahead in life. For this reason, a heavy penalty should be placed upon the athlete and also on the organization that the athlete plays for.

Florence Griffith Joyner ("Flo-Jo") died, at age 38 from heart seizure in September 1988. Before her death a shadow of suspicion hung over her performance in the Seoul Olympics in 1988 due to the physical traits of steroid use. The muscular form and heavy voice she had. Then her early retirement announcement abruptly in 1989, just when random drug testing was introduced. People where already saying she (Flo-Jo) was using performance-enhancing drugs.( New Statesman,LTD 1998)

Debate

The death of Flo-Jo throws the spot light back on the debate over drugs in sports they do not belong. They are unhealthy, can cause a number of problems for the athletes. (Kuiper.H Anabolic Steriods: Side Affects 1998) Flo-Jo was a good example. But there is that drive for the athlete to be stronger, faster, to reach for new goals, which might not be reachable without the performance-enhancing drugs.

September 1998 another athlete Mark McGuire was reaching for the most prestigious record in the record book, by hitting the most home runs in a single season. By doing so, he was the athlete in history to break the record and admitting the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Fortunately for McGuire the drug he was taking (androstenedione) was only on the International Olympic Committees list of banned drugs but not banned by baseball's governing body, nor is it illegal. (en.wikipedia.org/wki/doping_sports) That is really a bold move, to accomplish such a great thing and admit that performance-enhancing drugs help you get there.

Why haven't the league tried to stop this kind of behavior. Their greed has taken them to a new level. More concern for profit and fan base then for the health of the athlete. These drugs are not only hurting the athlete but it is putting a damper on sports in general. It's sending the wrong message to our young people. Do drugs and get ahead in sports, and maybe kill yourself in the process.

It should be brought to a stop. These organizations should be more responsible for the actions of the athlete.

There should be more fan support concerning this matter, to help force the sporting organization to bare down even harder then they are against performance-enhancing drugs. I believe fans can have a lot of influence in getting these performance-enhancing drugs out sports. With out the fans, what would sporting events be like?

People don't grasp that these drugs are life threatening and have caused a few athletes to die. Tommy Simpson a former cyclist died as a result of taking performance-enhancing drugs. He pushed himself so hard his heart gave-out. (bbc.co.uk.bbc/insideout/northeast/series6/cycling.shtml) What ever one thinks about athletes who take drugs, they don't lack courage.

But the fact still remains, that the idea of performance-enhancing drugs is deeply disturbing to a great many people. John Whetton is one of those people, a former Olympic 1,500 meter finalist and European Champion and is now a principal lecturer in life sciences at Nottingham Trent University. He is very clear that chemicals and sports shouldn't mix: "Using chemicals to do what your body isn't capable of doing is cheating, but it is a form of cheating that is hidden and therefore it is a nasty form of cheating".("Drugs and Darwin Fuel Athletes" Matt Barnard 1998)

Get Back To The "Natural"

What is the natural? Richard Kerridge, co-editor of Writing The Environment, published in 1998, sees society's attitude to sports as being a web of concepts all entangled around the idea of what is "natural" and how we define "nature".

We see sports, he believes, as a celebration on nature, a way of demonstrating the wonders of creation, which is combined with the ideas of discipline, abstinence and purity. "In part," he says, "it's to do with Christian tradition, in which to violate the law of nature is to usurp the power of GOD. The taboo is about interfering in nature and interfering with the body"(Richard Kerridge, Writing the Environment 1998). With such