Athlete's Test example essay topic

Although most athletes are dedicated to working hard in practice and training hard in the off-season, there are other athletes that aren't so dedicated and want to skip the blood, sweat and tears part of becoming the best athlete. Other athletes try hard to become the best but they are limited by the their God-given characteristics. In high school being an athlete is all about having fun, and some want to aspire and make it to the next level (NCAA), but lots of kids don't realize how much difference there is being a college athlete. In college sports everybody is the cream of the crop, and the level of competition is extremely higher compared to high school. This dilemma causes some athletes to consider taking ergogenic drugs, some which may have been banned by the NCAA and illegal.

Suspension of play for a year is the cost if an athlete's test shows them positive for an illegal drug. Catching drug cheats through frequent urine examinations is essential if NCAA sports are to be conducted on a level playing field. Performance enhancing drugs or ergogenic aids are supplements or drugs that help the body become bigger, stronger and faster. Unfortunately the NCAA bans not all but a majority of the performance enhancing drugs on the market. Although the short-term effects of these performance-enhancing drugs are proven to be beneficial to an athlete, the long-term effects are not always healthy. There are hundreds of supplements and P.E. D's out on the free market, but in the NCAA there are a few that are abused significantly more that others.

Steroids, Creatine, and growth hormones and also a technique known as blood doping are among the most abused ways to cheat in the NCAA. Then there are also the common street drugs, which are not P.E.D.'s but can make some athletes feel as if they were. Steroids are an illegal form of performance enhancing drugs based on the male hormone testosterone. Steroids mimic the effects of testosterone in the body, which increases the body's ability to recover after exercise as well as increasing muscle mass in a diminished period of time (anabolic 1). It sounds like a great boost to athletic performance but steroids also come with a long list of potential side effects including acne, mood swings, increased hair growth, kidney damage, heart failure, and death (anabolic 1). Although this list provides plenty of reasons for people not to use these drugs studies have shown a dramatic increase in their abuse especially in college athletes such as track and field, football, wrestling, and swimming are prime areas where athletes use the drugs for better recovery and improved performance.

Creatine is among the most wide used P.E.D.'s in college sports and is not banned by the NCAA. Creatine is a natural amino acid produced by the body that helps the muscles recover after a workout and enables them to do more work. Creatine is relatively new and is still being tested for its effectiveness but one study showed a 34% increase in muscle mass after beginning a steady program of creatine and weight lifting for three months (creatine story 1). Although the benefits are great as seen by these results studies have also shown potential side effects of long-term kidney damage, and the inhibited production of creatine naturally in the body (creatine story 2).

Although these warnings are out creatine use is still legal and its usage is dramatically increasing in many athletics including football, weightlifting, and track and field. Blood doping is a relatively new performance enhancing technique using the athlete's own blood to improve their performance. This is done by removing 1-4 units of the athletes blood a month before competition, separating the blood and re-injecting the plasma back into the athlete while freezing the red blood cells in cold storage. A few days before the competition the athlete is injected with the frozen red blood cells increasing his capacity to carry oxygen in the blood.

This procedure can be very risky because bad blood transfusions can lead to allergic reactions, or even contraction of the AIDS virus (Doping and Sporting 1). Athletes at all levels explore erogenic aids some more than others, and some choose to take the ones that are illegal. Testosterone and growth hormones are not easily detected, so more athletes are starting to turn to these drugs. Attempts to enhance athletic performance are not new. The Olympic Games date back over 2,000 years, so trickery in sports likely dates back at least that long (Eichler 3). In spite of increasingly sophisticated drug testing at the NCAA, suspicions of the use of illegal ergogenic aids are stronger than ever.

In a never-ending game of cat and mouse, athletes who cheat seem always one step ahead of those who try to catch them. The chances of getting caught by the NCAA are very slim because of the lack of testing, I have been an NCAA athlete for two years and have been tested a total of zero times. There is a chance to beat the system and some people take advantage of the slack the system gives them. The level of competition is extremely high in the NCAA especially in football, which I could tell you first hand. Winning is everything, and if winning is everything then some athletes may do whatever it takes to win. The problem for the athlete and society is when one athlete decides to use drugs to win, that action presents the others with a dilemma.

The others remain free to choose whether or not to break the rules as their competitor is doing, but they are no longer free to pursue their dream in the saying may the best athlete will win. So they are forced to face this troubling question. What's the price for glory? The NCAA administers the drugs tests to the athletes by getting a urine sample. The urine test is the least expensive test but is not the most accurate, although in the past few years the urine tests have become much more sophisticated. To ensure that the sample is the athletes own urine while the urine sample is being extracted there is an NCAA official literally watching over your shoulder.

The urine tests are then carefully packaged and sent to the lab for testing. There are more than 3,000 drugs banned by the NCAA, most of them the same drugs banned in the Olympics. Most colleges cannot afford to test for all these substances and let the NCAA bear the cost of testing during postseason play (Science and the Citizen 1). The urine test is not proven to be a 100% valid, an athlete that hasn't been using any illegal substances that tests positive for an illegal substance is said to have had a false-positive reading. A false-positive test can be the result of an athlete using an over the counter medication like the widely used Vick's inhaler, or even some types of cold medicines.

Rather than searching for drugs urine samples search for drug metabolites-inactive drug by-products that the body produces when processing the drugs for excretion (What is drugs and Sport 1). So even some foods like poppy seeds which are commonly used on bagels, has a very low amount of THC the drug that is present in marijuana, can produce a positive test. A false-positive test can ruin an athlete's credibility and career. On the other hand there is a false-negative result in urine testing. A false-negative test could result from urine replacement, when your urine is drawn from your bladder and somebody else's urine is injected back into your bladder.

Also there are some herbal cleansers that would produce a false-negative test. Unlike a false-positive test a false-negative test would put another drug cheater back on the playing fields. From the collection of the sample to the reporting of the sample there will always be "human error", and more false-negative and false-positive tests are to result from it. The NCAA relies on urine to test for banned substances, but there are other ways and athlete could be tested for drugs. Blood testing is where a sample of blood is drawn from a person's body, but this test is expensive and time consuming. Another method is Oral fluid testing; oral fluid is collected with a swab between the cheek and gums (not saliva).

The Blood test and the oral fluid test are not very god ways to test for substances banned by the NCAA because the window of detection is 24 to 48 hours and only recent abuse of the substance would provide a positive test. There is also a hair test; the hair test is very expensive and usually only used as in forensics. The hair test can detect substance use from a time period of over a year (Sport Sciences). Lots of athletes have at least tried some form of a performance-enhancing drug ranging from caffeine to creatine, but not many people realize what kind of benefits and also diverse side effects that come from steroids even though they are illegal. This is a letter from a high school senior that started taking anabolic steroids; it should give you a better idea of what kind of benefits and side effects that steroids can have: "I went to a Catholic high school in N.E. Ohio. For those of you who don't know N.E. Ohio and western P.A. are known for their football programs.

I believe Lou Holds called it the fertile crescent of recruitment. Anyways, much was expected out of us young men on and off the field but more on the field. As a freshman I was 5-9 190 pounds and I never came off the field during the freshman football season. I was looked at by Varsity coaches as 'one to watch'. The juice time, strange enough, started after my sophomore year of football (that summer).

You see, I got my ass beat on the practice field by older guys. 'The one to watch', had stopped growing at 5-10 195. This was something I was not use to and couldn't put up with. I decided to even out genetics a bit! As long as I played ball my grandparents always would give me cash. Little did they know where it was going.

I went right for the best, Anadrol 50, $2 a tab, then made by Sybex. I also included Testosterone Cyp. $50 10 cc 200 mg by goldline at the time. This was a great 6 week stack to start. The gains one can get are unbelievable. I went into my junior year of football at 225 lbs.

I won the weight class at our yearly bench off (290 lbs) and I was squatting well over 500 lbs. I got some common side effects. Zits all over my back, constant erections, and mood swings, at the time I thought I had control of. I guess sitting in detention for fighting wasn't in control. I kept the same 6-week stack on and off to maintain my gains. Now, however, when I was 'off' this included 2 non-Test. drugs, Deca and Winstrol.

Thank you Ben Johnson for making that drug known to me. My doctor at the time would not give me steroids but was happy to tell me how, how much and any other info I needed. We had monthly meetings to discuss my health. He felt me all over, and took piss and blood samples. I guess he thought I was going to do them with or without his help.

By my senior year every student knew what I was doing, along with half the team. I was a feared man imagine the ego at 17. Our team record was 4-1 and I was a terror in pads grading out above my peers every week. This is about the time my Grandparents decided that I should work for my money. How could I with football? To say the least my juice was cut off.

Unfortunately, I was about to go back on. I lost 20-25 pound in three weeks, I could barely bench 250, and by the 9th week of the season I was a very average player, grading out the lowest out of the lineman. After playing in front of 8 to 10 thousand every week and being a god, it was over. It took me 4 years out of high school even to walk into a gym. Now I coach football and keep a good eye on my players.

How could I ever blame them if they used? I mean from 14-18 years football is life to some of these guys. I still remember the words of the senior that hooked me up: 'God doesn't create men the same, juice makes up for his mistakes (Do anabolic-androgenic 1) '."God doesn't create men the same, anabolic steroids, juice makes up for his mistakes (Do anabolic-androgenic 1)". This is the way many college athletes get into steroids; their god given ability is not enough to make them a winner in a very competitive NCAA. But my remedy for a lack of talent is a lot of hard work; I've taken P.E. D's before like creatine but nothing that would cost me my right to play. I know what the price of glory is and it is the blood, sweat and tears you put into your sport.

The glory of leaving the playing field knowing that you gave it your all, all that you worked for.