...Should performance enhancing drugs be accepted in sports? Sports are a big part of many people’s lives. Whether they are playing basketball, football, baseball, or other sports, people want to perform the best they can to help their team win. Many athletes exercise and lift weight to achieve their goals, while others rely on special diet plans to be stronger and healthier. But, one of the most controversial ways of increasing athletic ability is by taking performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drugs can become a big part of athletes’ lives and have the potential of becoming very addictive, because players may see a major change in their performance. Athletes like Lance Armstrong, Wes Welker, and Alex Rodriguez have all used some form of performance enhancing drug. While it may seem like a good route for some major athletes, they end up losing some respect and their right to play and compete. So a major issue that sports authorities are facing now is whether...
Words: 960 - Pages: 4
...Drug use has reached an all-time high in the sports arena. The need to succeed, be among the elite, financial gain, and the pressure to win are some of the many reasons that drugs are found in sports today. Drugs in sports range from therapeutic drugs, performance enhancement drugs, and recreational drugs. Drugs in sports are found on various levels of competition such as: high school, college, and professional sports. High school athletes' are using enhancement drugs so that they may receive a college scholarship, collegiate athletes' are using drugs so that they make it to the professional level, and professional athletes' are using drugs to make sure that they stay among the elite. Drug use in athletics have led to suspensions of players, athletes being banned from that particular sport, and ultimately death. There are many reasons for using drugs in sports, with performance enhancement being one of the top reasons, but no one will ever understand why athletes risk their career and lives. A concern for the public is the fact that athletes assume these risks just to be among the top competitors of sports. Drugs are a danger to the health of athletes. Drug use to enhance performance is unethical, and using drugs is illegal in today's society. Drugs in sports is unethical because the focus of winning and succeeding overshadows the real reasons for playing sports such as the love for a sport, natural talent and ability, and hard work to be among the elite. Athletes are thinking...
Words: 4069 - Pages: 17
...Kori Bogard Dr. Karin Mendoza Intermediate English Composition (ENGL-2989-076) 29 March 2013 Word Count: 1,766 Steroids should be legalized Abstract The use of steroids and illegal performance-enhancing drugs appears to be growing in professional athletics. More and more high profile athletes are being busted for their use and consequently ostracized by fans and those in the athletic community. Beyond that, there are thousands of other professional and amateur athletes who have resorted to these drugs as well. As someone who has found a passion for all things fitness, and aspires to open up my own gym and train athletes someday, this issue is of high importance to me. Although many have accepted steroids as illegal and a type of cheating, these drugs should be legalized in sports. While it is widely accepted that performance-enhancing drugs pose health risks, I think it is the athletes’ own choice whether or not these risks are worth the benefit. In this research, I will argue why it makes sense to lift the current ban on steroids in professional sports. The effects of steroids are well known. They will help increase athletic performance and they also come with negative side effects. In a study done by clinical biochemists, it was found that use of anabolic steroids combined with exercise was highly effective. This research took 43 volunteers and divided them into four groups. One group of people took a placebo pill and exercised, one group took a placebo with no exercise...
Words: 1973 - Pages: 8
...Steroids have been part of baseball history for a long time and it’s benefited athletes who resort to using it without getting caught. It’s helped the game develop into the game we see today, with players breaking home run records and pitchers pitching Cy Young worthy numbers. Steroids have caused a rift between who should or shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame because it helped them get a competitive boost with the use of an injection or cream, while others played naturally and legally. While I believe that steroids have its advantages in athletes, it is just another way athletes can gain a competitive boost. If steroids were to be legalized, all athletes would have the chance to compete at the same level, but in a much higher and competitive environment. The stadiums would be more electric and games would be more exciting for the fans to enjoy....
Words: 2494 - Pages: 10
...“An alarming number of sports—baseball, football, track and field, and especially cycling—have been shaken by doping scandals in recent years,” reports Scientific American (Schermer, 2008). The performance enhancing drugs are becoming needed good for some athletes in order to succeed. There is a tremendous clash of ideas, what path we should take in according to these types of drugs. The million-dollar question is to legalize them or not. In “Good sport, bad sport” published in The Age, Julian Savalescu and Bennett Foddy (2004) argue that the use of performance enhancing drugs should be legalized in sports because it is not “against the spirit of sport.” First of all, the authors introduce the issue of using drugs in sports as something that has been around for a long period of time, even in the Ancient Olympics. Savalescu and Foddy then explain that the elimination of drug use in sports is failing. They say the athletes’ desire to win is a lot of times stronger than staying clean. In addition, Savalescu and Foddy argue that performance enhancing drugs do not doubt the spirit of sport. In their view, making human biology more effective symbolizes the human spirit. They say that sports are about striving to be better, and drugs allow athletes to do that. Savalescu and Foddy also claim that sports today are aimed against people without genetic predispositions to be the best, and so taking drugs would equalize people with different genetic predispositions. In their opinion, the...
Words: 1758 - Pages: 8
...Out of all the athletes in the world, 57% who have accommodations to intaking steroids or performance enhancing drugs say that even if these PED’s made their lives shorter that these athletes would still remain to use them. Athletes should not use steroids or performance enhancing drugs for various reasons. The professional athletes are influencing young adults negatively, PED’s are not good for you mentally, emotionally, or physically, and there’s a huge possibility that the athlete will get suspended from their team or sport. Out of ten juveniles, four of them say that their accommodations to intaking performance enhancing drugs or steroids were encouraged by professional athletes which were intaking PED’s. Professional athletes have around...
Words: 503 - Pages: 3
...To a sports fan, it might seem as if with every news broadcast comes another suspension; some athlete, old or young, loses half of his or her season after failing a drug test. In professional sports, where job performance is the primary factor in an athlete’s salary and is practically the only aspect of the athlete that sports fans and owners care about, many professional athletes turn to performance enhancing drugs to gain a competitive edge. One sport in particular that has been overwhelmed with the use of performance enhancing drugs, commonly referred to as PEDs, is Major League Baseball, or the MLB. The issue of PEDs in the MLB has been a long-lasting one, and several of the most famous names in baseball, such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire,...
Words: 1514 - Pages: 7
...With proper dosages and professional regulation throughout the world, performance enhancing drugs can have minimal to non-existing side effects on the body while keeping all the same benefits, so legalizing these drugs will be beneficial in different...
Words: 1090 - Pages: 5
...realm of sports that’s forever changing. Professional sports have significantly become a huge role in many different cultures and have become a realm of its own. Professional players have adapted to succumb to the level of athleticism that continues to rise within every generation. They are adapting to a constantly changing sport where athletes are becoming bigger, stronger, and faster. The increased amount of competition and athleticism in professional sports has advocated a need for new ways for players to get ahead of the rest of the pack. Performance enhancing drugs sit high on the list that the athletes have to choose from as a method to gain the advantage, but these substances have been recently heavily fought against in the realm of professional sports. This resistance has done more harm than good in a sense in that drug testing fails at what it’s supposed to do. It has led to more players turning to black market labs to obtain their steroids. As drug testing is supposed to level the playing field for all athletes, it truly de-levels the playing field in that so many athletes are cheating the drug test than there are natural athletes. Athletes who are taking PED’s are going to these black market labs that are not controlled or supervised when they are creating these drugs and as a result could potentially harm the athlete’s health. The legalization of PED’s in professional sports will not only reduce the amount of uncontrolled steroid activity in professional sports, but also...
Words: 1971 - Pages: 8
...‘Managing it with pills was slowly killing me’”, Maese uses credible sources to explain the benefits of marijuana. Mark Thompson talks with veterans about how marijuana has helped them in the magazine article, “Post-Traumatic Marijuana.” Marijuana is still illegal to this day, but it can be changed with all these benefits reaping the consequences. In sum, Marijuana should be legalized because of all the benefits it has; it helps with pain, PTSD, and workouts without enhancing performance. Marijuana’s main beneficial use is dealing with pain. Marijuana is a great replacement for dangerous pain pills such as opioids. In the article “The Need for Weed” Kyle Turley, two-time NFL first-team all-pro, explains how he became hooked on dangerous opioid pain medication, and that switching to medical marijuana saved his life. For...
Words: 768 - Pages: 4
...George Louis-Jean James Flemings English Comp I 4/26 /13 Steroids in Sports Should athletes be allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs in order to improve their performance? Steroid usage in sports has long been a real big issue for many athletes both professional and amateur. Steroids are not allowed in any sport however; some athletes do take the chance by using performance-enhancing drugs in order to increase the chances of a successful outcome in a competition. Many athletes have been banned from participating in certain sports because they were convicted of taking steroids. In light of this, one can only wonder how many top athletes have won events due to the use of steroids. There are many sides to the debate of whether or not athletes should be able to use steroids. Despite health reasons there are quite a few people who do believe that athletes should be allowed to use performance- enhancers. On the other hand, there are those who believe that steroids should not be used. First, in the current sports arena , professional athletes are known to have well paid salaries and because steroids have the potential to improve performances and to heal injuries, it is not surprising that research activities have been enhanced to develop better and acceptable alternatives for testosterone. The Germans had started taking steroids during the 1960s in order ...
Words: 1466 - Pages: 6
... Athletes use steroids without any regard to the ethics that accompany the intake of drugs. There are many reasons why competitors should, in fact, follow the rules set in place and stop using steroids completely. Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) should completely stop being used in competitions or leagues. First of all, anabolic steroids are known to be bad for your health. PEDs have unpleasant, undesirable side effects. The United States Anti-Doping Agency lists the symptoms of using PEDs, which include ”liver damage, stunted growth, increased aggressiveness, leukemia, anemia,...
Words: 1261 - Pages: 6
...English 3 10 February 2013 Steroids In many parts of the world today, sports competitions are the vehicle for the fierce quest to win, to be “the best.” Athletes will do anything to win whether that be cheating in golf or taking steroids in order to excel in baseball. It is said that over three million athletes and bodybuilders have used illegal steroids in this country alone (Solberg 92). If many people already use steroids why not make them legal and let people take them at their own risk? Or perhaps do you think steroids should stay illegal because they have harmful side effects and promote an unfair advantage in sports? With the growing concern over steroid use in our country, we must look at what is really best for the future of our athletes and the spirit of competition. Steroids are extra hormones that are either taken orally or injected into the body. Theses hormones set off a reaction that sends an individual’s testosterone level soaring, which in turn allows that person to increase muscle size and strength. But with this new-found strength comes some harmful side effects. Steroids can cause heart attacks or liver cancer, not to mention all the newly acquired acne that often develops. These are only a few of the hundreds of unhealthy things that can happen to you when you are on steroid (Harris129). Many people, medical experts and athletes alike, feel steroids should be legalized. They feel that the use of steroids a few times and in moderation is acceptable. They state...
Words: 1380 - Pages: 6
...Article Rebutal Steroids in sports Michael Johnson BCOM/275 Ms. Dennis 19NOV2014 We have all seen the news and seen many athletes in the news on the same topic over and over again, steroids. Should steroids be allowed in sports. We can debate this all day for people that are on both sides of this, there are pros and cons, I for one am for the pros. An individual names deborah sorensen from athletesagainststeroids.org wrote and i quote "Part of being an athlete is that you become vulnerable to the whim of every trainer, coach, media person, promoter, and sponsor. They want freaks. So you set out to be a freak or go unnoticed. The things you are willing to do for success are humiliating to think about. I was a hard, suspicious, neurotic woman while I was taking steroids. That just isn't me. I've seen marriages dissipate, families break up and financial security dissolve because of these drugs. I've seen men go on a cycle of [steroids]with the money they'd saved for their children's clothes, and I've watched innocent victims get thrown across a bar room for no reason by men who haven't the ability to control their aggression while using [steroids]. I've watched happy, energetic and positive guys go from Dr. Jeckyl to Mr.Hyde, and I've seen petite women turn into hulking no-neck bearded monsters with acne all over their backs and shoulders". Deborah basically states that it is the steroids fault that some guys are uncontrollably angry. Also that it is the...
Words: 605 - Pages: 3
...BUILDING EVIDENCE-BASED ARGUMENTS DEVELOPING CORE PROFICIENCIES ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS / LITERACY UNIT GRADE 7 “Doping can be that last 2 percent.” OD LL DUCATION www.odelleducation.com OD LL DUCATION Page 1 EVIDENCE-BASED ARGUMENTATION Literacy – the integrated abilities to read texts closely, to investigate ideas and deepen understanding through research, to make and evaluate evidence-based claims, and to communicate one’s perspective in a reasoned way – is fundamental to participation in civic life. Thus, the importance of a literate citizenry was understood and expressed by Thomas Jefferson early in the life of our democratic nation. Today, students face the prospect of participating in a civic life that stretches beyond the boundaries of a single nation and has become increasingly contentious, characterized by entrenched polarization in response to complex issues. Citizens have access to a glut of information (some of which is nothing more than opinion passed off as fact) and are often bombarded by bombast rather than engaged in reasoned and civil debate. Learning the skills and habits of mind associated with argumentation – how to conceive and communicate “arguments to support claims, using valid reasoning and sufficient evidence” [CCSS W1] as well as how to “delineate and evaluate the argument[s]” and “the validity of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence” presented by others [CCSS R8] – is therefore...
Words: 23215 - Pages: 93
