The nature of sports fosters a strong desire to win, and some athletes will do anything to rise to the top.
             Every elite athlete wants to get an edge somehow over his or her opponents. Many athletes have turned to supplements to gain this edge and the use of performance enhancing drugs has increased dramatically.
             While I was researching I found out about a poll that was taken four years ago on 198 athletes and they were all given the same scenario, if you were offered a banned performance enhancing substance that would allow you to be able to win every competition you competed in for five years but then die from the side effects of the substance, would you take it? Over 50% said yes.
             This proves the extremes that these elite athletes would go to win.
             The evolution of sport from a largely amateur affair into a big business with millions of dollars worth of sponsorship and endorsements for a select few champions increases the pressure put on to these athletes to succeed.
             Elite athletes are highly motivated and disciplined and the rewards and accolades that are available are enormous and these athletes only have a limited time to get to the top in their chosen sport adding to the huge pressure to succeed.
             This pressure to become successful or to be the best has contributed to the rise in drug taking within the sporting community.
             The use of performance enhancing drugs in sport has been around since 400 BC, where in mass spectator sport the athletes took performance enhancing substances such as mushrooms or plant extracts, which lead to the demise of amateur sport into professionalism.
             Performance enhancing drugs have been banned from sports because today's sporting community considers the use of these drugs is cheating. As a respected athlete put it " the fundamental ethos of sporting competition is the rivalry between highly skilled athletes who have attained their expertise through hard work and natural ability...