Throughout history of professional sports, the desire for reaching top levels of athletic performance is not a secret among athletes. Athletes are willing to spend money with coaches, trainers, intense training methods, and regulated diets to achieve the desired objective. While some methods are constantly published in sports magazines and websites, others need to be kept in secret. Between the most secret methods are the performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Although the use of PEDs seems low in today’s sports, an increasing number of superhuman athletes indicates that what is shown in the media about this issue is just the tip of the iceberg and the influence of PEDs in sports might be bigger than people thought. Therefore, how influential
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Nowadays, winning athletes are rewarded with recognition and multimillionaire deals. Therefore, the desire among athletes of being stars is a possible cause for the use of PEDs. However, since each type of drug has different side effects, users are subject to numerous health risks, like “liver damage, atherosclerosis, hypertension, personality changes, a lowered sperm count in males, and masculinization in females” (Boxill 175). Also, moral and ethical issues are related to PEDs use, according to Charles Yesalis, author of the book Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise, the concern over drug use by an athlete is generally founded in moral and ethical issues like the physical or psychological harm suffered as a result of drug use, and the unfair advantage over athletes who do not use PEDs, which may coerce other athletes to use drugs to maintain parity (xxviii). Even with myriad of references showing the negative points about PEDs, athletes still agree to use the drugs, having in mind just the positive …show more content…
In the NFL, “suspensions related to substance abuse” jumped from 21 in 2011 to 82 in 2012 (“Exploring Topics in Sports”), the cases almost quadrupled in one year. Nick Friedell, writer for ESPNChicago.com, in an article to ESPN.com, remembered that in 2011, the former Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, one year after winning the Most Valuable Player award, was interviewed by ESPNChicago.com, and Rose was asked to respond, in a scale from 1 to 10, how big of an issue was illegal enhancing in basketball, Rose responded “Seven. It’s huge, and I think we need a level playing field, where nobody has that advantage over the next person” (“Bulls’ Rose Denies Saying PEDs ‘huge’ Problem”). Later, Rose denied his statements on the response, arguing that he misunderstood what was asked to him. Did Derrick Rose really misunderstand the question? Or he tried to avoid further problems with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and his colleagues? Cases like Rose’s interview generate more questions marks about the influence of PEDs in professional sports. Another recent case occurred with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athlete Jon Jones in 2016. According to the article “Everybody’s on Steroids” written by Marissa Payne, Jon Jones failed “a performance-enhancing drug test ahead of UFC 200”. Jones ended suspended from the UFC for 1 year. Nate
Nowadays, winning athletes are rewarded with recognition and multimillionaire deals. Therefore, the desire among athletes of being stars is a possible cause for the use of PEDs. However, since each type of drug has different side effects, users are subject to numerous health risks, like “liver damage, atherosclerosis, hypertension, personality changes, a lowered sperm count in males, and masculinization in females” (Boxill 175). Also, moral and ethical issues are related to PEDs use, according to Charles Yesalis, author of the book Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise, the concern over drug use by an athlete is generally founded in moral and ethical issues like the physical or psychological harm suffered as a result of drug use, and the unfair advantage over athletes who do not use PEDs, which may coerce other athletes to use drugs to maintain parity (xxviii). Even with myriad of references showing the negative points about PEDs, athletes still agree to use the drugs, having in mind just the positive …show more content…
In the NFL, “suspensions related to substance abuse” jumped from 21 in 2011 to 82 in 2012 (“Exploring Topics in Sports”), the cases almost quadrupled in one year. Nick Friedell, writer for ESPNChicago.com, in an article to ESPN.com, remembered that in 2011, the former Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, one year after winning the Most Valuable Player award, was interviewed by ESPNChicago.com, and Rose was asked to respond, in a scale from 1 to 10, how big of an issue was illegal enhancing in basketball, Rose responded “Seven. It’s huge, and I think we need a level playing field, where nobody has that advantage over the next person” (“Bulls’ Rose Denies Saying PEDs ‘huge’ Problem”). Later, Rose denied his statements on the response, arguing that he misunderstood what was asked to him. Did Derrick Rose really misunderstand the question? Or he tried to avoid further problems with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and his colleagues? Cases like Rose’s interview generate more questions marks about the influence of PEDs in professional sports. Another recent case occurred with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athlete Jon Jones in 2016. According to the article “Everybody’s on Steroids” written by Marissa Payne, Jon Jones failed “a performance-enhancing drug test ahead of UFC 200”. Jones ended suspended from the UFC for 1 year. Nate