0 Drug Use Among Athletes example essay topic

691 words
In recent years, sport is not only the games that people train them to improve their power and stamina, but also sport has become a big business. Fame and money are the aims of many professional athletes. Therefore, nowadays athletes face enormous pressure to excel in competition. They also know that winning can bring them more than a gold medal. A star athlete can earn a lot of money and fame and athletes only have a short time to do their best work. Although every athletes know clearly that training is the best path to victory, but they also realize that using some drugs and other practices can help their efforts and give them a shortcut, even if they risk their health and their athletic career.

In order to solve the complex problem of drugs abuse in sport, some international sporting organizations are trying to find some of the ways to make sporting contest fair and honest. Many people believe that drug in professional athletic is not a serious problem. In fact, some drugs are used for the purpose of pain relief and the athletes who are suffered from some kinds of injuries during their career. However using drug in sport is more widespread and serious than people think.

Dr. Charles E. Yesalis, a professor health and human development at Penn St. University said that, ! ^0 Drug use among athletes has gone dramatically up in recent years. Athletes also are becoming more venturesome about mixing different types of drugs! +/- (! (R) Drugs and Athletes! cited at web accessed at 3: 50 pm 10/07/2003). The percentage of drug usage increased highly in the 1967's and on well-publicized incident happened at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 when sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive and he was taken off his gold medal that show us the dangerous of this problem.

How are the harms of using drugs in sport? According to the article, ! (R) Sports and Drugs! cited at web (accessed at 3: 20 pm, 10/07/2003)! ^0 Using drugs, any kind of drug, harms your body. Because nearly all drugs used in organized sports have potentially serious side-effects and the big problem with drug usage is you don! t see its negative affects right away, you only see the positive result. The results you see immediately are positive ones.

However the long term results are not so glamorous. There have been cases of mortality as well as death from using drugs in sport! +/-. With the co-operation of the Australia Sports Drugs Agency (ASDA) and the sporting organizations to effort against using drugs in sport. Recently, some solutions are introduced to solve this problem. The banning on drugs must be process more effectively.

The drug supply must be cut off to guarantee the extinction of drug use in sport. However, these drugs in black market are not only more easy to buy, but also these drugs themselves are more harder to detect. These problems make it very difficult to remove illegal drug use from sport. Education is always the best solution. While drug testing is seen as necessary as a deterrent, then education of athletes is a useful preventive method to provide education and advice to the sporting community. I believe that!

+/-The only way athletes will realize that there are other things that can be done to increase their performance without drugs is if they are taught the way to train and eat right to their training! +/- (! (R) Sports and Drugs! cited at web (accessed at 3: 20 pm, 10/07/2003) In conclusion, drug in professional athletics is a major problem facing society today. It is not enough to tell athletes that drugs are wrong. Everyone, not only are the athletes, but coaches, trainer and even chemical companies must realize that the long-term consequent of drugs use in sport is very dangerous.

This problem needs to be remedied, and remedied quickly.

Bibliography

R) Survey of Elite Athletes, 1994! (R), issues for the nineties, ! ^0 A Sporting Chance?! +/- edited by: Kay Healey, 1995! (R) Drugs In Sport! , ! ^0 The Case Against The Ban! +/- (IPA Review, Vol.
46 No. 3, 1993)! (R) New Weapon To Fight Dope Cheats! , Jennifer Cooke, (The Sydney Morning Herald, October, 1994)! (R) Drug Testing! , ! ^0 A Sporting Chance?! +/- (The Spinney Press, 1995) (! (R) Drugs and Athletes! , Dr.
Charles E. Yesalis, at Penn St. University), cited at web (accessed at 3: 50 pm 10/07/2003)!