Anabolic Steroid Use in Sports :: essays research papers

Drug use has been a part of competitive sport for almost a century. At thefirst olympics in Athens in 1896, marathon runners drank a mixture ofbrandy and strychnine to help them on their ways and used opiates tocontrol pain during a race. Use of alcohol was very common in the earlyyears of the twentieth century. It might be argued that the first athletesto use drugs to levy their performance were, in fact, cheating. We needto remember that drug use is non new. East Germany athletes used drugs toenhance their performance. Soviet Union was also involved in drugexperimentation. In the United States the drug culture had become sowidespread that steroids and stimulants were known to every high schoolcoach. The use of drug was believed by athletes to enhance performance, inone way or anformer(a).Until 1960, nothing was make about the issue. The sports council of Europeofficially moved against drugs when it tabled a resolution calling for thebanning of drugs on ethical, moral and medica l grounds.The Olympic games, even though they be only held every 4 years, representthe pinnacle of sporting achievement. The International Olympic Committee(IOC) has a critical role to play in demanding gigantic drug testing andin providing funding for such testing.This is a controversial issue. The IOC believes that each of theinternational federations which governs particular sports should beresponsible for its own testing.This seems reasonable enough, and it is argued that the Olympic Games arethe highest profile competition in the world and the most prestigious. Theworld stops to watch them and they represent the culmination of years ofwork for athletes. kind a gold medal is the glory to any sporting career.Urine testing is the usual testing method, and it doesnt reveal the fullrange of drugs taken to enhance performance. Blood testing is a moreefficient way, it can detect drugs that urine testing cannot.By the beginning of the 1980s, the use of anabolic steroids had become instead common. These drugs - and the allied substances, testosterone andhuman growth hormone - were basic muscle builders. They increased mass andstrength, while producing, as one side effect, a heightened aggression.In other words, they made winners in sports. The problem seems to be in thedefinition of drug. For example, if it is all right for a competitor totake a pain-killer or a vitamin supplement, wherefore is it not right to stopexhaustion with a caffeine hit? The answer would seem to be that drugs such