One of the biggest problems in
sports today is steroid use. Athletes
looking to get a quick edge over their competition may turn to the dark side
and use steroids that will destroy their lives.
While steroids may be enticing to many athletes for their short term
benefits, they will destroy an athlete’s body and reputation which is why they
should continue to be banned from all sports.
Steroids affect the human body in
many different ways both good and bad.
The biggest advantage to steroids is the accelerated growth of lean
muscle. This is a great boon to athletes
of every sport who feel that the pressure to perform well is to great. However, all of that comes at a very steep
price. Athletes who use steroids, among
other things, may experience delusions, heart attacks and even get cancer. Those aren’t the only health drawbacks
though. Abusers can also get severe
acne, baldness and have their tendons rupture; ouch! (Performance
Enhancing Drugs, 2012)
Steroids don’t just destroy your
body though. They also destroy your
reputation. Several major sports players
have had their reputation destroyed because of steroids including Ryan Brawn
and Alex Rodriquez. Both of these superb
players lost a lot of their fans and credibility this horrible drug.
One of the reasons athletes choose
to use steroids is the competitive environment we live in, constantly
pressuring them to do perform well. Sadly
enough, in a recently taken survey 18.9% of males between the ages of 14 and 25
say that they think steroids are the only way to get into professional
sports. This is why I think that
steroids need to be better regulated in pro sports to prevent young people from
getting this idea. (Survey: Youth Athletes Feel
Pressured by Steroid Use in Pro Sports) Also, if all of these people use steroids
then the non-abusers will be forced to use steroids to keep up. This snowball effect will continue to occur
if steroids aren’t eliminated from sports soon. (Performance
Enhancing Drugs-Steroids, 2013)
Fortunately for sports, drug
testing is getting significantly better every year. Because of advances in the field scientists
are capable of identifying components of the drugs down to the molecular
level. The bad part is that while some
scientists are fighting steroids others are developing them. Those scientists are busy developing steroids
that are undetectable. Both sides of
this steroid war are locked in an eternal struggle… (Performance
Enhancing Drugs, 2012)
Steroids
aren’t going away any time soon. There
are too many people who don’t understand the long term effects of steroids and
think that a little bit of muscle is worth the ruined life. Also, since our
society isn’t going to back off the pressure on athletes, steroid developers
won’t stop developing new drugs and athletes won’t stop taking them. Regardless though, sometime in the future I sincerely
hope that steroids will disappear from sports for good.
