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Abstract

This paper reviews the influence of steroids on sports citing various articles that evaluate the harm that the use of performance enhancing substances by athletes has affected the sporting world. It seeks to justify how steroids affect athletes themselves and how it affects the sporting fraternity at large. The review is based on peer referenced articles that have evidences on how the use of performance enhancing substances has tainted the reputable picture of sports that was initially a source of entertainment to many. The articles reviewed range from those providing an historical view of the genesis of the steroid culture and the evolution of this substances in to more sophisticated and untraceable substances that elude the testing procedures established by most of the anti-doping agencies established in the recent years to those that stipulate the adverse impacts of these substances on sportsmen and women in terms of their health and their lifestyles as well as its impact on the entire sporting fraternity. Part of the review also focuses on the fact that there is prevalence in use of steroids by men as compared to its use by women.

Keywords: Steroids, Testosterone, Doping, Hormone

Introduction

Professionals have been in question of whether it is really possible for athletes and sportspersons to compete, produce breaking performances and win in sports requiring strength, spend and endurance without the use of performance enhancing substances such as steroids. The answer is a straight yes considering the old days when sophisticated substances had not been identified and athletes could compete fairly and naturally without boosting their capabilities using drugs and substances. Over the recent years though the number of athletes engaged in use of performance enhancing substances such as steroids has tremendously risen and in fact there is no sporting activity in these century that has not experienced the change of doping or cheating to perform by its athletes. This has forced the relevant sporting committees such as the Olympic committee to design ways of detection of the presence of illegal substances in an athlete’s body. This is the reason behind the formation of anti-doping agencies to curb this trend.

The topic of focus under this review is the impact of steroids on sports and whether it does really hurt sports and the athletes involved and also trying to explain why there is much more prevalence in men than there is in women. The significance of this review is that it attempts to clear out the argument on whether steroids are beneficial or are harmful to both the user and the entire sporting fraternity. Some of the controversial issues facing this topic is the fact that some professionals have tried to argue that the use of steroids has beneficial factors and since sports is a competition, the means of winning is not the issue as people are nowadays concerned with the result rather the means. This paper analyzes the issues revolving around the use of steroids with reference to six peer referenced articles. The research question that shapes this paper is “How has sports been affected by steroid scandal? Why are steroids more prevalent in the men’s sports arena rather than women’s sports? Does this hurt sports?”

Review of Literature

Timothy, N. (2004). Tainted Glory-Doping and Athletic performance. The New England Journal of Medicine.

An article published under the perspective journal stipulates multiple evidences of the use of steroids and its impact on sports. According to this article the raising cases of doping suggest that there is a wide use of performance enhancing substances such as steroids that is untamed and is liked to cause damage to the portrait of sports across the world. This situation has been worsened by the silence of sporting professionals as well as athletes on the matter thus solutions on how to curb this trend proving too difficult for the anti-doping agencies. This trend has distorted the upper range of human athletic performance (Timothy, 2004, p.3). The use of drugs to enhance performance has not started just the other day has it has been in use even in ancient centuries its only that they were no established mechanisms to detect them though some of the recorded events include the use of a drug known as amphetamines by soldiers during the second world war. The drug at that time was used to give the soldiers strength and persistence over pain so as to continue in the war. This was the first proven case of effective performance enhancing substances. The effects of steroids are that it exposes the athlete to a risk of body overexertion sometimes even leading to fatal head stroke. A documented case is the example of one of the cyclist Tom Simpson who died due to head stroke on the steep ascent of Mont Ventoux (Timothy, 2004, p.5). One of the anabolic steroids known to many as Testosterone propionate also known as Testroviron appeared first in the Olympic games in (1948).

Performance enhancing substances not only pose a health risk to the athletes but also costs the moral integrity of sports as well. It jeopardizes the relevance of modern sports threatening the entertainment value of sports. The challenge of getting rid of this menace out of the sports fraternity is that athletes have designed ways of avoiding being detected during doping tests by using designer drugs such as Tetrahydrogestrinon (THG) which has been developed to elude the detection of all the current testing procedures the drugs are even more elusive by the fact that it mixes with hormones such as the Testosterone and Insulin Hormones.

The author of this article succeeds in highlighting the impact of steroids on both the individual athlete and the entire sports fraternity by giving evidences of the various proven. My choice on this article is based on the fact that it has an in depth analysis of th e impact steroids have on sports and the history of these performance enhancing substances.

Adler. (2004). Toxic Strength. Newsweek Journal.

Withdrawal from the use of steroids abruptly can lead to depression in the users of this substances as and even premature mature due the fact that steroids just like any substance that is abused is addictive and not easy to withdraw from (Adler, 2004). This article by Jerry Adler on “Toxic Strength” stipulates on the impact of steroids with regards with specific examples from athletes who have been affected by the use of these performance enhancing substances. A perfect example is a basketball player Taylor Hooton who was found hanging at his place after committing suicide. Taylor had been a friend of Chris Wash who found his friend hanging at the time and tried to hide the evidence of cause of death by throwing away the syringes Taylor used to inject himself with steroids (Adler, 2004, p. 2). This case depicts the serious consequences of sudden withdrawal from use of steroids as it leads to depression and fatigue which also develops into a mental problem and can turn suicidal. The danger that the use of steroids is so fatal as an average adult male produces 35 to 50 milligrams of testosterone in their testes as compare to the volume that athletes sometimes inject into their bodies with research indicating that they can inject even up to an estimate 300 to 1000 milligrams of testosterone. Which has massive effects on the functioning of human body . The presence of testosterone hormone in males secreted in their testes is enough to explain why steroids is prevalent in males than female. The use of Testosterone related steroids is effective in males as it is difficult to detect since the male testes produces the same testosterone hormone. Females also can produce a hormone know as estrogen that functions almost the same as the male testosterone but less effective in concealing evidence on steroid abuse. Another tactic that athletes often use to elude being detected in the testing process is by substituting steroids with a chemical known as Androstenedione a chemical that is converted into testosterone in the body thus acting naturally like the testosterone produced by male testes (Adler, 2004, p.7). This article also analyzes the reasons why there is this trend of use of steroids and is continuing to spread like forest fire with even high school teenagers accessing these steroids easily. Studies have indicated that most of these drugs can be obtained over the counter, from personal doctors, its availability on internet and also some of the teens get advice from their Gym attendants. This poses a challenge in the establishing of efforts to curb the use of these steroids as their access is far too easy that even high school teens can get them at their nearest pharmacist. An athlete using steroids can gain up to a phenomenal muscle mass of a kilogram a week which is achieve through training after injection of the steroid.

This article is unique as it not only because it supports its arguments with tangible evidences but also gives a reason to as to why there is prevalence in men sports than in female sports which is another of the question that shaped this review paper thus my choice of this article is on the basis that it is reliable and effective in explaining the above notions. Its explanation to justify that despite efforts by anti-doping agencies are fruitless since athletes have designed elusive ways to avoid detection during the testing process explains why there is still rampant cases of use of performance enhancing substances by athletes. The author successfully convinces the reader that use of steroids does much more harm than good both to the user/athlete and the entire sporting fraternity thus discourages the use of steroids strongly and with evidence.

Barbalho, D. (2015). The use and Effect of Anabolic Androgenic Steroids in Sports.

The use of steroids has adverse impacts on athletes who prefer the use of this substances to gain a competitive advantage over others while competing. The effects may range from health hazards such as vascular and reproductive disorders as well as psychological disorders. Since its use is addictive, withdrawing from the use of these steroids by athletes have led to futile cases of suicide. This explains why we often loose some athletes over suicidal issues or in unclear circumstances. In fact, high profile athletes in the recent times have been on the list of the suicidal effects of withdrawal from use of steroids. This not only robs the families of the athletes with dear ones but it also robs the entire sporting fraternity of athletes that could break records and make sport a source of entertainment (Barbalho, 2015, P.3). The article focuses much on the health effects of the use of steroids on the athletes as well as trying to explain the notion behind the prevalence of steroids in men sports than the women sports. The explanation this article gives to the fact that men sports attract prevalence of steroid use than women sports is that naturally the muscle mass distribution in males is higher than that of females and this explains why males tend to use steroids more than females as steroids work well with a higher muscle mass distribution in order to realize its effectiveness (Barbalho, 2015, p.5). In terms its impact, steroids affect both the male gender and the female gender in discriminatively as it leads to reproduction problems due to deterred ovulation. On males it also affects their testicular system due to a lot of the production of testosterone hormones. Other adverse side effects include mental health disorders, high libido in men. Some of the beneficial gains include strength gain, stamina and prolonged training sessions which boost their endurance in sports.

This article demonstrates the various side effects associated with the use of steroids as it analyses both the effects on both the male and the females thus making a relevant argument. My choice of this article was drawn by the fact that it not only dwells its arguments on one gender of the sports but focuses on both while highlighting the reason why steroids are often used more by males than females.

Blackwell, J. (2004). Discourse on Drug use: The Social Construction of a steroid Scandal. SAGE Journal.

The 1988 Olympic games witnessed a case of use of performance enhancing substances such as the steroids in Athletes, a urine test performed on a Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive on drug use and this led to the athlete being stripped off if Gold medal and his recording breaking time also nullified in the 100-meter event (Blackwell, 2004, p.2). This incident not only affected the athlete but the entire Canadian team performance during that year’s Olympic. It painted a bad picture on the country and ruined its reputation. This incident also had focus shifted on the country and anti-doping agencies focused more on athletes from that country.it also ignited a topic that until then is still controversial with others arguing that performance enhancing substances should be allowed since people are concentrated on performance and therefore the means do not matter. Some section of students from America when asked about the same case justified that Ben Johnson was not aware of the drug use and that he was disqualified unfairly. This also sparked another controversial issue on whether some of these athletes are really aware that they are using performance enhancing substances or some of them take them innocently maybe on medication grounds or others being given unknowingly by their coaches who are under pressure for them to perform.

The author’s use of evidence from a rather historical background makes it hold sufficient grounds on the argument that use of steroids is rather harmful than beneficial thus the anti-doping agencies should step up their game in detecting and stopping the use of performance enhancing substances that has claimed more of the athletes lives as well as distorting the image of sports globally.

Baron, D. (2007). Doping in Sports and its spread to-at-risk population: an international review. World Psychiatry Journal.

The ultimate goal of sports is often misinterpreted as for the sake of winning and attaining the ultimate price. This according to the article should not be the trend and instead athletes should not participate in sports in order to conquer but rather fight well and should not strive to win but rather participate in sport. The current situation though depicts otherwise as the sports industry has been made a business with high stakes associated with winning thus athletes would use any available means to win even it means cheating or use of performance enhancing substances (Baron, 2007, p.9). Sports across the globe has been made a multi dollar investment such that even the participants have the pressure to attain that ultimate price of winning at all costs. To surface on this argument, the article goes ahead and quotes an interview with the results indicating that of the interviewed sportspersons, 98% of the athletes are willing to use performance enhancing substances such as steroids as long as they are not caught and as long as they are guaranteed of winning. Others even are not afraid of the health consequences that accompany such actions and are willing to put their lives at stake so as to win (Baron, 2007, p.11). This explains why athletes are going for steroids to gain that much needed competitive advantage against other athletes.

On the basis of its arguments, the above article can be said to be a tangible source that not only describes that effects of steroid scandals on the sports fraternity but also a justification of why some of the sportspersons prefer the use of the performance enhance substances with specific reliable and sufficient examples. The article goes ahead also to point out the current situation of sports around the world.

Reardon, S. (2014). Drug Abuse in Athletes. Dove Press Journal.

Pressure to perform, injuries, urge to gain competitive advantage, retirement, and physical pain are some of the reasons why athletes opt to using steroids and other performance enhancing substances (Reardon, 2014, p.2). This explains why there is nearly no sport spared of use of performance enhancing substances with almost every sport including basketball, football, rugby and Athletics experiencing rampant cases of use of drugs. Some cases even do not require the consent of the athlete as coaches sometimes are involved in inducing substances on the athlete without their knowledge due to the pressure that this coaches also have from their countries, bosses or club ownership. This shows the extent of effect of steroids have on sports as even the much celebrated sportspersons do not win it using the right means. In sport the use of steroids creates a situation of unfair play, non-sportsmanship, professional foul and generally leads to an unjust and unfair competitive environment which in the long run erodes the culture of sports (Reardon, 2014, p.13). This trend should be corrected to ensure that athletes compete fairly and win using the right means.

The author of article above succeeded in justifying the reasons why sportspersons would opt to use performance enhancing substances and explains that at times we may blame the athletes but a closer look would reveal that sometimes it is not the athletes fault to opt for the substances but it is rate the pressure they have to perform that drives them. Others are brought into this mess by their coaches who also experience the same pressure. This though does not justify that athletes should use steroids to cheat but rather the should approach the right means of winning.

Synthesis

A comparison on the above reviewed articles reveals that they all revolve around the same grounds of analyzing the effects of steroids and other performance enhancing substances used by athletes to cheat in sports. Other articles like Adler’s “Toxic strength” goes a notch higher to give examples of recorded cases in history of doping cases and how this cases were handled. This technique of using the history of steroids to explain its impact on sports is also approach by Blackwell’s “Discourse on Drug use: The Social Construction of a steroid Scandal” and Timothy’s “Tainted Glory-Doping and Athletic performance” who both use examples of sportsperson’s associated with the use of steroids and how this affected their health and their sports career. With regards to issues of comparison of prevalence in men and women sports, two article “The use and Effect of Anabolic Androgenic Steroids in Sports” an article by Barbalho and Adler’s “Toxic Strength” are undoubtedly unique in analy zing this aspect of the levels of use of steroids in males with comparison to women.

Conclusion

A closer study of the review above indicates that there is more harm in the use of steroids than there is any Good thus it is with no doubt a clear indication that the use of performance enhancing substances should be condemned using the strongest means possible. Anti-doping agencies should step up their game to nub more athletes who approach this unjust and unfair means of gaining competitive advantage over other sportspersons.

References

Timothy, N. (2004). Tainted Glory-Doping and Athletic performance. The New England Journal of Medicine. Retrieved from: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp048208.

Adler. (2004). Toxic Strength. Newsweek Journal. Retrieved from : http://www.newsweek.com/toxic-strength-116281.

Barbalho, D. (2015). The use and Effect of Anabolic Androgenic Steroids in Sports. International Journal of Sport Science. Retrieved from: http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.sports.20150505.01.html.

Blackwell, J. (2004). Discourse on Drug use: The Social Construction of a steroid Scandal. SAGE Journal. Retrieved from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002204269102100112.

Baron, D. (2007). Doping in Sports and its spread to-at-risk population: an international review. World Psychiatry. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2219897/. Reardon, S. (2014). Drug Abuse in Athletes. Dove Press Journal. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140700/.