Albert Gamboa
Steroids in Sports: The Tainted Side of Sports
University of Texas at El Paso
26 October 2011
Barry Bonds, former professional baseball player, who owns the all-time home run record. Marion Jones, five time Olympic medalist. Lyle Alzado, former professional football player, and Super Bowl champion. Floyd Landis, cyclist who won the 2006 Tour de France and Alex Rodriguez, one of the best all-around baseball players of all-time who will eventually break Barry Bonds’ home run record. He is also the highest paid baseball player ever. What do all these different athletes from different sports have in common? They all cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs. All of these athletes (and more) were caught during the 21st century when sports finally started testing for steroids. From the late 1980’s to the late 2000’s, this time period was called the “Steroid Era”. Steroids may make a person a better athlete but there are consequences to it whether you get caught or not. Careers can be tarnished (Rodriguez), records can be tainted (Bonds), medals can be stripped (Jones) and lives can be taken (Alzado). Children or future athletes can also be influenced by these wrong doings.
In 2007, George Mitchell released a report that took 20 months to investigate, having proof that 89 baseball players tested positive for using performance-enhancing drugs. According to the report, “Mr. Mitchell said ‘baseball’s steroids era’ started roughly in 1988. It took 15 more years for baseball to start random testing… He noted that testing has reduced steroid usage, but players have switched to human growth hormone, which cannot be detected in urine tests, which baseball’s program administers,” (Wilson, Duff and Schimidt, Michael, 2007, pg. 1). This report started a controversy in major and minor league baseball about who has and has not taken steroids to upgrade their performance. This also started a debate whether or not steroids should be a part of the game. Of course most people are against the use of steroids because of what this article states, “Getting help from one’s genes by being blessed with a performance-enhancing genetic predisposition is acceptable. Use of drugs is not,” (Kayser, 2005, par. 2). This means most athletes work hard to get to where they are at and it is unfair that some athletes use steroids to gain an advantage on their performance. There are consequences on using performance-enhancing drugs though. Athletes may get an improvement on their performance but according to this book, “Anabolic steroid abuse has been associated with a wide range of adverse side effects ranging from some that are physically unattractive… to others that are life threatening… Most are reversible if the abuser stops taking the drugs, but some are permanent,” (Gerdes, 2008, pg. 24). Athletes who experiment on using anabolic steroids take a risk on damaging their bodies whether it is a short term or long term effect. Steroids also have side effects on males or females hormones. Females can develop a deep voice, grow extra facial hair and reduce their breast size, while males can grow breast, lose their hair and have to worry about their genitals. According to this book, “In males, suppression of gonadotropin induces testicular atrophy and reduces semen production and quality,” (Hartgens, Kuipers, 2004, pg. 535). Male athletes who take steroids lose their sperm count and their testicles shrink in size. There are also mental issues that are produced because of steroids. During World War II German Dictator Adolf Hitler was believed to use anabolic steroids on his soldiers and himself. Hitler had the same side effects that a heavy steroid user may have which are depression, violent behavior, overly aggressiveness, and suicidal thoughts. The life threatening effects that steroids can produce involve liver damage, high blood pressure that can develop to heart disease and kidney dysfunction. Former professional football player Lyle Alzado was known for taking anabolic steroids for almost all of his life. He developed anger problems, loss of hair and short term memory loss. All of this led to brain cancer that eventually killed him. He was only forty-three years old. Medical records say steroids did not produce Alzado’s brain cancer but Alzado was certain that the drugs were responsible for his cancer. In his last interview before his death he said he would not want anybody going through the same pain as he went through and also said nobody should take steroids. Two years before his death, Major League Baseball finally banned any performance-enhancing drug in 1991, but players still found loopholes to cheat the system.
The way of detecting steroid use on athletes was by urine tests but athletes and trainers became smarter in using Human Growth Hormones. HGH is harder to detect in urine tests than anabolic steroids because of what this article states, “Mass spectrometric methods for detecting the abuse of androgenic anabolic steroids and related substances in urine are highly sophisticated. These are not feasible for GH because the urinary clearance of GH is not a constant function of plasma GH,” (Holt, 2011, pg. 5). Sports officials (most notably baseball) have now started testing athlete’s blood before and after the season to get a better read on what the players are using or have in their bodies. Blood testing have produced a positive impact to decrease steroid use. MLB and the Olympics require blood testing but the National Football League still does not. MLB also gives out random drug tests before games just to make sure that no one is using them during the season. However blood testing didn’t start till 2003. This is why a great deal of baseball players were on steroids before 2003, because they knew they would not get caught using them. It is getting easier for sports officials to detect steroids on athletes but there has to be specific tests involved in order to detect them because of the different types of performance-enhancing drugs. The most commonly used performance drug is androgenic-anabolic steroids. This article states, “Athletes take androgenic-anabolic steroids (AASs) to increase muscle mass and enhance performance,” (Adis International Limited, 2005, pg.19). Athletes seek an edge or advantage to be better than their opponent no matter which sport or competition they are in. The reason this is cheating is because a less talented athlete should not be able to take steroids and become better than those who are already talented and do not use steroids.
The athletes who cheat are not only cheating themselves and their health but also the kids who look up to them. According to this article, “Those who oppose the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs say that the athletes who use them are breaking the rules and getting an unfair advantage over others. Opponents of the drugs say the athletes are endangering not only their own health, but also indirectly encouraging youngsters to do the same,” (Katz, 2008, par. 3). Kids who are watching these competitors see them as role models and want to be just like them so they think that since professional players can use steroids, they can too. Some people think it is not just the athlete’s fault that they use performance-enhancing drugs. Agents, trainers and sometimes even big contracts are a result of athletes being pressured in to start taking steroids. This has caused another dispute of not just punishing the athlete, according to this book, “As a baseball player once told me, the problem with the debate on performance-enhancing drugs is that ‘punishment is an individual issue but the distribution is a team issue,’” (Merino, 2011, pg. 69). This is saying that the player gets punished but there also needs to be a punishment for the team or anybody else that helps the athlete get a hold of steroids.
In conclusion steroids will do more harm than good in the long run. They may make an athlete better on the field but it will destroy them off the field mentally and physically. There are now harsher punishments if you are caught using them: Starting with heavy fines to mandatory suspensions and even lifetime bans. This has caused players to think before doing and trigger a decrease in athletes using performance-enhancing drugs or testing positive for them.
References
Adis International, L. (2005). Performance enhancement is not the only effect of androgenic- anabolic steroids in athletes. Drugs & Therapy Perspectives, 21(8), 19-22.
Gerdes, L. (2008) Performance Enhancing Drugs. The National Institute on Drug Abuse. Greenhaven Press.
Hartgens, F., & Kuipers, H. (2004). Effects of Androgenic-Anabolic Steroids in Athletes. Sports Medicine, 34(8), 513-554.
Holt, R. (2011). Detecting growth hormone abuse in athletes. Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry, 401(2), 449-462.
Kayser B., Mauron, A., &Miah. A. (205). Viewpoint: Legalisation of performance-enhancing drugs. Lancet.
Katz, J. (January 23, 2008). Should We Accept Steroid Use in Sports?
Merino, N. (2011). Sports and athletes. Farmington Hill, MI: Greenhaven Press.
Wilson, D. & Schmidt, M. (2007, December 14). Steroid Report Cites “Collective Failure”. New York: New York Times.
