Drugs And Athletes Term paper
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Many people believe that drug use in professional athletics is not a serious problem, however it is more widespread and serious than people think. In professional athletics the use of drugs is looked upon as somewhat of a serious problem, but is also very discrete and low key. Every once in a while one might see a prominent figure in a certain sport being reprimanded for the use of some outlawed drug, however this is just one of the many who happened to get caught. Athletes today seem to find no moral problem with using performance-enhancing drugs, or in other words cheating. Also many of them feel that because they are "stars" there should be no repercussions for their illegal activity. Today, drug use in sport has reached enormous proportions in society and is destroying athletics from the ground up. Nowhere is the problem more serious than in professional athletics, where athletes, coaches and trainers misuse drugs in search of ways of ways to improve performance. Many athletes fail to take their time when making the decision whether to use drugs to their advantage. Unfortunately athletes may use drugs for therapeutic indications, recreatio9nal or social reasons, as muscular aids or to mask the presence of other drugs during drug testing. But the safety of the athlete's health is being neglected. Drug use has led to an increased number of deaths and suspensions of athletes. Also, if this continues all athletes someday will have to choose whether to compete at a world-class level and take drugs, or compete at a club level and be clean. In sports, athletes, coaches and trainers will try their best to find a way to reach the top level. They not only search for a way to enhance performance but most of them have aspiring Olympians to train. It is no secret that performance enhancing drugs have been used by Olympians for decades, or that athletes will do almost anything to gain a competitive edge. (Drugs in Sport) According to Dr. Charles E. Yesalis, a professor health and human development at Penn St. University, "drug use among athletes has gone dramatically up in recent years. Athletes also are becoming more venturesome about mixing different types of drugs. One reason is that new drugs keep coming on the market, and some turn out to be of help in giving athletes a competitive edge. Sports officials feel they have no choice but to try to combat drug use in sports with every legitimate weapon at their command. They are motivated in part by concern for athletes' well being. Most performance-enhancing agents have side effects that can pose an immediate or long-range threat to health. But the officials are driven by self-interest too. If the public perceive major sports to be hopelessly drug-ridden, attendance and television viewership is likely to plummet. And thatcould lead to financial ruin for athletes and promoters alike. The monetary stakes are higher today than ever before. Many of the top athletes damned very high salaries, and a select few demand huge additional sums for product endorsement. Pro team owners, meanwhile, are constantly scrambling for more income from broadcasting and other sources to meet their massive payrolls and still turn a profit. A series of drug scandals might well cause media outlets and corporate sponsors to re-evaluate their financial commitment to sports. Similar trends are under way at the Olympics. Relaxation of International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules on amateurism has opened the games to athletes whose chief livelihood is sport. This, in turn, has brought increasing emphasis on winning and breaking records. Sine there is often little difference among top athletes in any sport, even a fractional improvement in performance may be decisive in championship events. Gaining the slight competitive edge can lead to substantial increase in performance and endorsement fees. Many athletes have concluded that the quickest way to reach these goals is through performance-enhancing drugs. (Athletes and Drugs) Sprinter Ben Johnson's ban from the Olympic games, in 1988 set off a flurry of bureaucratic activity and official hand-wringing, but a decade later it is clear that Johnson's fall from grace was no turning point, merely part of a continuum and, in some insidious way, inspiring. How else can it be explained that in 1995, when 200 elite----mostly American----athletes were polled on whether they would take a banned performance-enhancing substance if they would win and not be caught, 195 said they would do it. The athletes were also asked what they would do if a banned substance guaranteed they would win every competition they entered for the next five years and then later cause them to die from side effects. Fifty percent said they would take the substance. That is what professional athletics is dealing with nowadays. These young and gifted people have a case of tunnel vision and an oddly persuasive and self-soothing moral escape hatch: If other people are taking these drugs, why shouldn't I? (Is drug use a problem in sports) Like other people, athletes take drugs for a variety of reasons. Recreational use covers all those occasions when drugs are taken to "get high" or "have fun." Drug use for the purpose of pain relief also is widespread among athletes, virtually all of whom suffer injuries of some sort during their careers. The ability to "play hurt," much prized by coaches and fans, is often reinforced by painkillers and tranquilizers. In most cases, athletes take drugs for performance enhancement. This can mean a number of different things, depending upon the sport. Weightlifters, bodybuilders and football linemen want to put on more muscle; sprinters want to make a more explosive start out of the blocks. Cyclists and long-distance runners seek greater endurance. Some performance-enhancing drugs are effective only if taken shortly before the beginning of the athletic contest. Other performance-enhancers serve mainly as training aids. By helping muscles to recuperate more quickly from exhaustion or injury, these substances enable users to train for longer periods of time at high intensity. Nearly all drugs used in organized sports have potentially serious side-effects, and some athletes decline to use them for that reason. But other athletes take these drugs with little or no hesitation. To a large extent, their attitude has been shaped by society. "Drugs are used to soothe pain, relieve anxiety, help us to sleep,...
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