Steroids in the World of Sports Essay Example for Free

Steroids in the World of Sports Essay During the 1930s, scientists discovered that anabolic steroids could help the growth of muscle in laboratory animals, which led to abuse of these drugs by bodybuilders and weightlifters and then by athletes in other sports. Ever since the beginning of sports there has been different techniques used in order to gain an edge over opponents. The question that has been most frequently asked is, which of these techniques is considered cheating, and which ones are fair game. The use of steroids is now the most well known form of cheating in recent sports history, and has drove many sports commissioners into a full investigation, that has lead to unique unprecedented punishments. Professional stars must realize that they are huge role models in today’s society, and are influencing young athletes all over the world. Any player in today’s society knows that there is a major punishment for using any kind of performance enhancing drugs. Not only do they get suspended immediately but if and when they return are often booed by fans, and are basically embarrassed in front of the entire league. Since steroids has been such a major subject of late, and such closely watched, I think anyone who tries is just asking for trouble. If an athlete in one of the major sports is caught using performance enhancing drugs there is immediate media frenzy. Many people believe that if your caught using performance enhancing drugs, any accomplishments you made during your career should be erased. You then might ask yourself, what would drive an athlete to risk their playing career by using steroids? Steroids are manufactured to enhance testosterone and are usually taken to build muscle, boost performance, and improve appearance. Often older players use steroids when they are injured because they do not recover as fast as they usually would when they were younger. In sports, size is extremely important, and that extra thirty or forty poun ds will have a major factor in how an athlete will play. One of the biggest problems with performance enhancing drugs is that scientist keep coming up with new drugs that the public doesn’t know about. All of the major sports now drug test their athletes, but since these newly developed drugs aren’t well known there is no way they can regulate the test. We have seen baseball players like Mark McGwire and Jose Conseco admit to the use of a drug called Andro. Andro is now one of the performance enhancing drugs being tested by the league. During the time that Mark McGuire and Jose Conseco were playing not to many people knew about the drug, and was considered to be legal. As the major sports try to put an end to this steroid era, we see some of the biggest stars being linked to steroid use. It is very easy to link this to the amount of teenagers in high school and college that are now using performance enhancing drugs. Over the past decade the percentage of young adults that have admitted to using steroid has almost tripled. Since most of the players being caught are major stars, it is easy for young adults to think all they need to do is take steroids and they’ll have that extra edge. The sport that has been affected most by this steroid era has been Major League Baseball. Ninety-five percent of the people who vote on the Baseball Hall of Fame agree that if a player has been associated with the use of steroids, they would never vote that athlete into the Hall of Fame. This is a very important subject because there have recently been a number of baseball players that would be a lock for the Hall of Fame if they were not linked to steroid use. It is very hard to determine the penalty for these players because nothing like this has ever happened before. Some fans believe that the use of steroids have very little effect in certain sports, and do not understand the big deal. Some have actually suggested making steroids legal, and the athletes can take them at there own risk. Although I think this idea is fascinating, I do not believe I could ever happen. The pressure for players to use steroids would be almost impossible to resist, and would lead to everyone to take them. The style of play in most sports would change from skill and technique to power and strength, which would take away from the beauty of the game. The most important reason they could never legalize steroids in sports is because of the health reasons involved with taking steroids. Steroid use is one of the most controversial subjects in today’s society because of many different reasons. There are so many supplements that are considered to be legal, but there is just as many that are considered to be illegal. Athletes must ask themselves if it is worth it to risk their careers on trying to just get an edge. The problem with this is that most people do not think of the consequences until after they get caught. The most important thing most major league players don’t think about when they use steroids is how it affects young athletes in today’s society.