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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Words: 1760|Pages: 4|9 min read Published: Oct 25, 2021 Table of contents Introduction Body Conclusion Works Cited IntroductionPerformance-enhancing drugs have existed within sports for centuries which has inevitably resulted in positive and negative impacts on the health of athletes and on sport. Sport has been directly linked to the use of performance-enhancing agents since the original Olympic Games in Greece which was a spectacle that took place between the years 776 to 393 BC. It is widely speculated that “The origin of the word ‘doping’ is attributed to the Dutch word ‘doop’, which is a viscous opium juice, the drug of choice of the ancient Greeks.” (Bowers, 1998). Performance-enhancing drugs (PED’s) have become a public issue since it’s ban in most sports but has continued to be used prevalently, resulting in both positive and negative impacts on sport, physical health and psychological well-being. Performance-enhancing drugs or PED’s are dangerous to the health of users and must be banned in all levels of sport.BodyPerformance-enhancing substances have been used in sport to improve an athlete’s strength and speed, which increases their overall performance but has consequently led to an unfair advantage to users, damage to the classic values of sport and negative influences on young athletes. As elite athletes use performance-enhancing drugs, the entertainment factor in watching live sport events would increase, as it would result in athletes unlocking a new level of potential. There are also cases in which the non-use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes could mean they are refraining from competing seriously. An extremely competitive sport such as professional bodybuilding requires constant muscle growth by athletes. An athlete that participates at professional bodybuilding has almost no choice but to resort to performance enhancing substances if they wish to participate competitively. It has been stated that, “Many involved in bodybuilding competitions believe they cannot compete without using steroids in order to reach what they describe as their potential,” (Redwood, 1995). Therefore, in this case, performance-enhancing drugs may be perceived to be necessary. Allowing elite athletes to utilise performance-enhancing drugs would dramatically increase the entertainment in live sport events especially in sports such as rugby, basketball, boxing and football. Fost (2005) suggests that the concept that performance-enhancing drugs provide an unfair advantage presents no coherent evidence or argument to support it. He further states, “What is more fair – the use of a team of sports specialists or a simple pill? What is the difference between training at altitude and taking erythropoietin to achieve a similar effect?” (Fost, 2005). Legalising PED’s in sport would increase the entertainment factor, However, PED use in sport would result in sports losing its spirit of fairness and becoming a competition to access the best
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