Athletes On Performance Enhancing Drugs

Athletes all around the world, in every sport, are using PEDs (performance enhancing drugs). Not many of them but a big number of athletes. In the United States, they are illegal all around, but not totally illegal in all countries. Do you know how long this has been happening? According to CNN “ Doping’ by professional athletes has been acknowledged as a problem since at least the 1960s (CNN).” This outrages me, people have been cheating since way back and we never know who really is doing it. It could be one of your favorite players to watch. I see it all the time in the National Football League, an already talented player gets caught using PEDs and then gets a suspension even if they have already been caught before. I’m not exactly quite sure why they keep giving them a small suspension when the athletes already know the rules, is a suspension enough? Which brings me to the question of; Athletes should get a longer suspension or be banned after using PEDs.

Let me start by explaining what PEDs are. They are anabolic steroids, some are natural, and others are manmade. There is a variety of them out there, but not all steroids are bad. According to Faultless fitness author, Kleio Bathrellou said: “Anabolic steroids were first made in the 1930s and are now used therapeutically in medicine to stimulate bone growth and appetite, induce male puberty, and treat chronic wasting conditions, such as cancer and AIDS” (Bathrellou). Why does this attract athletes to use them? The Performance enhancing drugs athletes like to use and are the most common ones are THG and HGH. THG is a manmade anabolic steroid which helps increase the bulk of muscles and increases muscular endurance. HGH or human growth hormone is natural, it is every person. Since it’s found in people, when taken as a supplement it can be absorbed faster than man-made steroids. It also improves muscles but can increase bone density as well. The same article also stated that there are some other drugs that now have been getting more popular. “Stimulants, including amphetamines, impact the central nervous system, increasing alertness, and decreasing appetite” (Taylor Hooton). The athletes know they are breaking the rules by using a drug that makes them perform better but they still choose to do it.

As an athlete, this all sounds amazing, an easy way to improve your performance and get that extra edge to get ahead of your opponent. All athletes that use PEDs have a huge risk which is failing a drug test. Drug testing is required in all sports but is usually only done before the season starts. According to Sports Preference. com “The MLB drug test about 600 players three times a year, and up to 60 in the offseason. The NFL does it a little different they have 12,000 tests are conducted during the season, including 10 randomly selected players from each team in every week of the season. Athletes can also be randomly selected for testing up to six times each off-season. (Sports Reference)” Most sports leagues besides the NFL are not allowed to do random drug tests on all the athletes unless they have suspicion on a single athlete. Athletes are given a warning ahead of time when a test is coming up. To those who are taking these drugs, a warning is perfect and usually have enough time to get it out of their system. The National Football League has one of the most aggressive testing programs in the world, even more than the Olympics. “During the season we test in the neighborhood of 350 a week. Ten players, per team, per week.” (Bleacher Report). This system they use makes it a little harder for the players to use these banned substances. They usually only suspend players for 4 weeks, or if it’s a more serious case then the player can be suspended for up to a year but that doesn’t happen often. The real question to ask yourself is how many times getting caught is enough or does it depend on how much the athlete uses at the time. Those questions I believe will never truly be answered and it’s really wrong there should be stated rules, and no one should be able to get away with it even if broken.

According to Ranker.com, the most common question is “Who is the most famous athlete who failed a drug test? Alex Rodriguez tops our list. In 2006, A-Rod failed a drug test when testosterone and promoxolane showed up in his results. Even though A-Rod failed multiple drug test he is still #19 on The Greatest Hispanic MLB Players Ever (Ranker) How could these famous Icons still be known in the sport even though they cheated. Is that fair? In the sports reference article, it had one of the most shocking facts I’ve read. It said, “An anonymous survey of 2,552 retired NFL players released by the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation reported that 16% of offensive linemen and nearly 15% of defensive linemen said they used PEDs.”(Sports reference) Fifteen percent is way too much that isn’t right because they are facing other athletes that simply just work hard and don’t use anything.

When a student is caught cheating on a test, their test is taken away and counted as 0 points. They don’t get a second chance not to get caught again and I believe this is how it should be if any athlete gets caught. The drugs they are taking are making them bigger, faster and stronger just by taking a drug. They know it is wrong to use them it is clearly stated in the contract they sign and even if it’s not stated it is common sense. There is a lot of arguments regarding whether an athlete’s records and statistics should be wiped clean during the period they used performance-enhancing drugs. A good example is when “all American discus thrower Ben Plucknett tested positive for steroids, he was banned from participating in future events by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and he was stripped of his world record.” (CNN) I personally believe they should be taken away, they cheated and is unfair to put them higher than other hard-working athletes. Over a thousand reports have been made of athletes failing drug tests. Why can’t these athletes stop and learn their lesson? Is the punishment not enough to keep them away. If the student who cheated on their test got an A, would it be fair to everyone else to consider that student at the top of the class? Of course not, they did not deserve it.

One of the most conversational programs that faces this issue a lot is in the NCAA. The NCAA stands for National Collegiate Athletic Association. This is a big difference compared to a program like the NFL because the NFL pays its athletes for their performances. College athletes can’t earn money for playing. The NCAA has rules that I feel like work very well and are good punishments. “The penalty for a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug (PED) is strict and automatic: student-athletes lose one full year of eligibility for the first offense (25 percent of their total eligibility) and are withheld from competition for 365 days from the date of the test. A second positive test for a PED results in the loss of all remaining eligibility.” (NCAA Frequently Asked Questions about Drug Testing). For athletes that get paid to perform should not have a second chance. I believe punishment need to be stricter. If more players are worried about getting punished worse, it will lead to fewer players using PEDs.

As an athlete myself, I find it repulsing knowing there are athletes out there still using performance-enhancing drugs. While the rest of us athletes are working hard to get results. I believe in a fair system of discipline, on the first offense they should have the athlete be suspended for a long period of time. And finally, on the second offense, this athlete should be banned from the sport. I believe they shouldn’t have a third chance. The athlete knows that PEDs are performance enhancing drugs which make them bigger, faster and stronger to get ahead of their opponent. If more players are worried about getting punished worse than before it will lead to fewer players using PEDs. The athlete by now should have learned their lesson, and if they’re not smart enough to figure it out then they should not be playing the sport.