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Performance-Enhancement Drugs in Sports The essence of sporting activity has long ago lost its classical meaning. It ancient times, sport used to be thought of as just physical expression of peoples healthy mentality. The Olympic Games were originated in Greece in 776 BC. Back than, people were aware that it was necessary for the individual to have a harmony between his physical and mental health. However, in our time, sport ceased to be a sport, in traditional sense of this word, and turned into industry. We often get to hear the referrals to hockey industry or to football industry and it does not strike us as something very odd, because we see the commercialization of sport as being perfectly natural.
The usage of steroids by professional athletes comes as a logical result. We can argue long and hard about whether commercialization of sport is good or bad, but it became the part of objective reality. Therefore, the issues that are related to this commercialization needs to be discussed in the proper context. Majority of people have a negative attitude toward athletes resorting to steroids, in order to win. However, this attitude is unsubstantiated, because it originates in time when sport was associated with peoples desire to stay healthy throughout their lives. Even as recent as thirty years ago, sporting activities were being thought of in terms of peoples mass movement.
Back than, it was impossible to imagine a normal boy, who would not like to play hockey or baseball. Nowadays, according to various sociological surveys, fifty percent of high school students in America are overweight; therefore, it is simply impossible for them to participate in sporting activities. The era of mass sports is the thing of past. Nowadays, sport became just a form of entertainment, which allows majority of people to have a good time, while watching football game, for example, and also gives the chance to very few professional athletes to earn megabucks. It is natural that making a lot of money, within very short period of time, is associated with high risks, whether we talk and drug dealing, playing on stock exchange or striving for the title of heavyweight boxing champion. This is why; everything is permissible, when it comes to reducing the chance of losing in the field, where stakes are very high.
Bengt Kayser, Alexandre Mauron and Andy Miah in their article Viewpoint Legalization of Performance-Enhancing Drugs, make a perfectly good point when they say: Anti doping control is judged necessary to prevent damage from doping. However, sport is dangerous even if no drugs are taken playing soccer comes with high risks for knee and ankle problems, for instance, and boxing can lead to brain damage (Kayser, Mauron, Miah). The performance-enhancement drugs for professional athletes are just a mean of reducing the risk of loosing. Unlike ordinary people, professional sportsmen dedicate their whole lives to achieving a sporting record and if they are unable to do this, the life looses its meaning to them. There are numerous stories of famous athletes becoming alcoholics and sinking into obscurity, because they were not able to realize their professional dream.
Therefore, the ban on doping cannot be considered as morally justified, especially since it is being forcibly imposed upon sportsmen by immoral society. America is consumerist country, where money has the absolute value and where nobody really believes in the code of ethics that is based on two thousand years old Christian dogma, with exception of a few Bible thumper's. It is hypocrisy to deprive sportsmen of the victories they need so badly, only because of some abstract moral considerations. It is especially repulsing to hear moralizing about the evils, associated with steroids, on the part of bureaucrats from International Olympic Committee one of the most corrupted international organizations.
The editorial Bribery Overshadows IOC Drug Conference, which can be found on the site of CBC News, points out to the fact that International Olympic Committee is simply incapable to put an end on the usage of steroids by professional athletes: The IOC wants to be the agency to police athletes. Critics, however, question the ability of the IOC to fairly examine the issue in the wake of a bribery scandal surrounding the Olympic host city selection process (CBC News) If we want to return to the original ideals of Olympic movement, we might as well require sportsmen to perform while being naked. It is impossible to talk about assuring a complete fairness, when it comes to sport competitions, with the mean of having a ban on performance-enhancement drugs, because we live in 21 st century. It is a fact that overwhelming majority of professional athletes resort to using steroids, especially during international competitions, and only few of them get caught doing this.
This is why, if IOC really strives to guarantee fairness, during international sporting events, it needs to legalize performance-enhancing drugs. It is very unfortunate that those organizations that administer a control over sports consist of people that are unable to open up their minds to new ideas. With the regards to IOC, we can say that the main reason why this organization is strongly opposed to legalization of steroids is because ban on performance enhancing drugs provides an additional opportunity for Ioc's officials to engage in bribery and corruption. It is very much the same as with legalization of marihuana the most ardent critics of it have very practical reasons to enjoy a public reputation of uncompromising fighters against evil. The time has come to reconsider whether the anti-doping policies benefit sport. The recent scandals, involving athletes being caught using steroids, reveal the pure absurdity of having ban on performance-enhancement drugs in the first place.
Apparently, the food we consume already contains chemical elements that have the potential to be tested as drug-positive. There are many cases of sportsmen being stripped of their medals, because drug tests revealed chemical elements in their bodies that are commonly associated with steroids. However, these elements were just a part of normal diet or were being contained in regular prescription drugs. In her article Positive Drug Tests from Supplements, Louise Burke admits that there are more and more cases of athletes being tested steroid positive, only because regular food they eat contained forbidden chemical elements.
Burke is one of those self-proclaimed guardians of public morality; this is why she refers to these incidents as speculation: Recently, there has been speculation that some of the positive drug tests recorded by certain athletes have resulted from the use of supplements and special sports foods rather than deliberate use of banned products. This speculation has been particularly strong in the case of positive tests for the steroid, Nandrolone (Burke). The humanity is going to increasingly rely of genetically modified foods in the future. This will be inevitably followed by the increase of artificial elements ratio in the products. Even today, the majority of people do not really know what is contained in the products they eat, because the producers of food are very reluctant to disclose information, in regards to the food ingredients. For example, how many people know what is E 345?
This is an artificial colorant, which is presented in most of soft drinks and is recognized as having toxic properties by independent chemists. It is known fact that the list of chemicals that are associated with steroids, becomes longer every day. What if one day E 345 is going to be put on this list? Will it mean the end of professional sports, as we know it, because the overwhelming majority of sportsmen consume soft drinks? It is time to say farewell to anti-doping policies. We need to look at the bright side of athletes being allowed to use performance-enhancement drugs.
It will substantially improve their performance. Moreover, we need to keep in mind that it is a sport fans that are going to benefit from this the most. Since sport became an entertainment and there is nothing we can do about it let it be the best entertainment of all! Nowadays, every outstanding sportsman is being followed by the crowd of faceless bureaucrats in grey suits who control his actions. This is an intolerable situation. Instead of focusing on achieving the professional excellence, sportsmen are preoccupied with how to cheat at doping tests.
Those people who are opposed against steroids cannot substantiate their point of view. The best they can come up with is saying that steroids are generally evil. This shows that anti-doping policies are based on prejudices that have roots in Christian mythology. In our country, church is separated from the state; therefore, the opponents of performance-enhancement drugs should not even be given a chance to impose their view on everybody else. Bibliography: Burke, L. Positive Drug Tests from Supplements. (2006).
Sport Science. Retrieved September 3, 2007 from web Bribery Overshadows IOC Drug Conference. (1999). CBC News Online. Retrieved September 3, 2007 from web Kayser. B.
Mauron, A. and Miah, A. Viewpoint Legalization of Performance-Enhancing Drugs. 2005. Viewpoint. Retrieved September 3, 2007 from Abstract: This paper discusses the issue of using performance-enhancing drugs in sport.
Outline: Introduction. P. 1 Main part. Pp. 1 - 3 Conclusion. P. 3
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Research essay sample on Performance Enhancement Drugs In Sports
