Use Of Steroids By Some Athletes example essay topic

Kiefer 1 Before the 1990's, athletes were unique. They were able to capitalize on their God-given talents, and make themselves famous based on their skill. But then something happened. Steroids began to playa bigger and bigger role in sports. No longer were the most naturally gifted athletes becoming the stars. Now, it can be said that whoever has the best pharmacist can be the best athlete.

As the amount of enhancing steroids increases in professional sports, many athletes are gaining an unfair advantage over their competition. Athletes take steroids to gain an advantage. Steroids are used by athletes in baseball, football, and in Olympic events in hopes of finding the edge to make them the best in their sport. By mimicking the anabolic effects of testosterone, steroids help build tissues, help muscle recovery after injuries, and strengthen bones. 'We live in a very fast world now and, we " re always looking for a shortcut.

We always want to get rich the fastest way, we want to get famous the fastest way, we want to get strong and be competitive the fastest way,' Arnold Schwarzenegger said, on why athletes take steroids. Some athletes simply do not feel like they can compete with the best in the world without a little help. This could be the number one reason why athlete begin taking steroids. Some of their peers are bigger, faster, or more skilled, and they want to feel equal, and get a little outside help.

'... Some people are naturally gifted, others have to work very. Some people are not going to make it without extra help,' remarked Erik de Bruin, coach / husband of Michelle Smith, who won three gold medals in the 1996 Olympics, shaving almost twenty seconds off her best time from 1993. To try to gain athletic equality, or superiority in their sports, they go to steroids for a little extra kick. Muscle building drugs have sports into something of a freak show. Kiefer 2 The general build of a given athlete is much bigger with their arms, shoulders, and legs enlarged, sometimes to a point that they do not look real.

'... Guys out there look like Mr. Potato head, with a head and arms and 6 or 7 body parts that just don't look right. Theydon't fit. I'm not sure how [steroid use] stuck in so quickly, but it's become a prominent thing very quietly. It'! ; widely known in the game.

' Curt Schilling told Sports TI lustrated. Baseball, a sport that can be greatly affected by steroids, has seen it's statistics go through the roof. In the history of Major League Baseball, there have been a total of thirty-six fifty home run seasons. Only eighteen times had someone hit fifty home runs in the first one hundred years of baseball. In the last seven years, the same number of players have hit fifty home runs, with the all-time record of home runs in a season increasing by 12. 'When you add in steroids and strength training, you " re seeing records not being broken, but completely shattered,' acknowledged Schilling.

More and more world class athletes are being acknowledged for their ingestion of steroids. Ben Johnson, in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, set a world record in the 100 meters, running it in 9.79 seconds. Johnson was the fastest man of all time for just a couple days, when his medal and time was revoked when he tested positive for steroids. Another track star, C.J. Hunter, tried to gain an advantage over his competition.

Prior to 2000, Hunter was the top shot putter in the United States. Right before the Olympics, he tested positive of steroids and was banned from all competitions for two years. Last year in the NFL, Rookie of the Year contender, Julius Peppers's season was abruptly halted after he tested positive for steroids. Jose Conseco made history when he became the first man to hit forty home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season.

After his retirement, Conseco claimed that he had taken steroids throughout his career, enhancing his abilities Kiefer 3 and allowing him to do what he did. Another big-time player, Ken Caminiti, came out of the steroid closet after his retirement. He started taking steroids after he had injured his shoulder at the beginning of the 1996 season. After the All-Star break, Caminiti went onto hit thirty-six home runs, raising his total to fifty, twenty eight more than his previous high, and winning him the National League Most Valuable Player. The use of steroids by some athletes have helped them excel in their respected sports. Sports are strictly business, sparing no expense to get the best, most physically fit people to play for the teams.

The sports market has billions of dollars in it, and there is an uncertainty of how long one athlete's demand may be because there is always someone better and stronger breathing down their neck. Between 1978 and 1982, a total of 2,548 players played in Major League Baseball. Twenty years later, from 1998 to 2002, Major League Baseball employed 3,784 players. Of these nearly 4,000 players, Conseco told SI, about 70% of them are juiced up, which could explain why so many more players are used, many getting replaced by someone bigger or faster. This fact could also explain how each generation is producing athletes who are more physically able to produce power numbers in sports. An effort to rid professional sports of steroids use has started, with different people taking different approaches.

The NFL has created a random, three strike system for testing for its players. Each week, a computer randomly selects's ix players per team to be tested. Every player basically gets three chances, with the penalties increasing for every violation. First time offenders receive a four-game suspension. Second time offenders get a six-game, nearly half a season, suspension. Third time offenders earn a-~one-year ban from the sport they love.

The United States Track and Field delegates recently voted in favor of changing their steroid-use policy. The new policy, which states that anyone who tests positive for steroids will accept a lifetime ban from participating in any event under the U.S. Track and Field Organization, will replace an older policy that only suspended steroid users for two years. Major League Baseball finally started testing its players for steroids. Its punishments are not as severe as the NFL or USA TF, but that is because it was just put into place.

They do not have the best system, but it is the start of something. Steroid use in professional sports is only now beginning to be seen as the problem it is, and work is finally being done to try to wipe out the use of performance enhancing steroids in all of sports. It will take some time, but with the penalties becoming more severe, hopefully this problem will run its course and disappear. By ridding sports of steroids, an equal opportunity for all athletes will be restored.