The PerformanceEnhancing Drug Controversy
Performance-enhancing drugs are a topic in today's society which is currently under hotdebate. Performance-enhancing drugs are substances which are used to stimulate certainareas of the body to make an athlete excel in a certain event. The most common form ofperformance-enhancing drugs are called steroids. According to Hank Nuwer in his bookSteroids, steroids are "...compounds that are necessary for the well-being of many livingcreatures, including human beings. These include sex hormones, bile acids, andcholesterol" (15). Steroids are used in the medical field to treat many ailments, and thisuse is not the use which is currently under controversy. The medical reasons are to treatanemia, burns, asthma, anorexia, intestinal disorders, and much more (Nuwer 15). Thesetypes of steroids are called cortical steroids. But the other use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs is that they areused by athletes who wish to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors, or use themto keep up with the competition since so many athletes are using these types of drugs. These drugs are taken in a variety of ways. The two most common ways are to be takenorally in pill form, or injected into the
Performance-enhancing drugs are used in all levels of competition today, whether it be inthe Olympics, in the pros, in colleges, or even in high schools. " Runners World v33 no8 (August 1998): 70-73 Meer, Jeff. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987 Bamberger, Michael and Yaeger, Don. " The New Republic v217 (November 17, 1997): 10+. To be caught is not easy; it only happens, says Emil Vrijman,director of the Netherlands' doping control center, when an athlete is either incrediblysloppy, incredibly stupid, or both" (62). Thus the whole nation was suspended from the PanPacific Championships in 1995. Athletes see other peopletaking these drugs and winning events and breaking records, and they want to do thesame. Should the IOC (International Olympic Committee) take the gold medal away fromCierpinski and move the second, third, and fourth place finishers up one spot? WillKardong finally have the feeling of getting that medal? Is it too little too late for him? How can the IOC possibly compensate for the years of disappointment that the fourth,third, and second place finishers felt? These questions are what the IOC have to try tofind the answers to. "Young athletes have heard and seen that established athletes whomthey admire use them [performance-enhancing drugs], and they want to follow the samevictorious path their heroes have trod" (Nuwer 12). They see and read news all the time which contains both legal and illegalperformance-enhancing drugs and they usually show the athletes taking them winning theirparticular event.
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