Should Doping be Prohibited in Sports?

Murtaza Ibrahimi
Mr. Reynold
ENG 115
Essay #2
April 5, 2019
Should Doping be Prohibited in Sports?

Prohibiting doping has turned into a hot debate topic in today’s world of sports; while it

has its proponents there are opponents too. But, what is doping? Doping refers to the action of

using banned drugs, banned methods, and even denying to take a drug test or interfering with

doping controls by athletes to boost training and sport results (“What is doping”, 2010).

Although most athletes know that doping in sport is cheating but there are some who commit it.

Though at first look it may seem that prizes, money, or reputation make athletes to commit

doping but expectations and pressures coming from coaches and parents, and to get quick

recovery from injuries can be a cause too (“Why do people cheat”, 2010). Doping is not tolerable

in sports and there are organizations that are working to ensure free-doping sports; the World

Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is the international one. For instance, Lance Edward Armstrong,

the famous American professional road cyclist, was banned for a lifetime from all sports and

stripped of his competitive achievements from 1998 forward after the United States Anti-Doping

Agency labelled him a serial cheater for doing unprecedented doping in sport (“Lance

Armstrong: USADA report labels him ‘a serial cheat,’”, 2012). While opponents oppose the idea

that doping should be prohibited I am going to argue through this essay that doping should not be

allowed in sports because it negatively affects the athlete’s health and, additionally, destroys

fairness in sports.

The first reason that doping should be prohibited in sports is that using Performance

Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) have side effects on the athlete’s health. In a very competitive

environment, using PEDs by athletes has become progressively more common; however, using
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PEDs (doping) has negative effects on health and the benefits aren’t worth the risks and even

may lead an athlete to death (“Understanding the risks of performance-enhancing drugs”, 2018).

According to (“Adverse Health Consequences of Performance-Enhancing Drugs: An Endocrine

Society Scientific Statement”, 2014), Androgenic-Anabolic Steroid is a PED which taken by

most athletes for increasing muscle mass and strength as it is available easily with a low price. In

fact, AAS is testosterone which has two main effects on a human’s body; androgenic effects

which is musicalizing includes growth of male secondary characteristics and anabolic effects

which is increasing the muscle mass and strength. On the other hand according to “Harrison G.

Pope, Ruth I. Wood, Alan Rogol, Fred Nyberg, Larry Bowers, Shalender Bhasin”, 2014),

“Adverse effects of AAS on several organ systems have begun to emerge. Of particular concern

are cardiovascular effects, hematologic effects, psychiatric and neuropsychological effects, and

hormonal and metabolic effects. There are also a variety of apparently less frequent effects on

various other bodily tissues.” Certainly, AAS is only one kind of PEDs and each kind has its own

side effects on health. If doping is allowed in sports, the opportunity will be provided for athletes

to use PEDs for achieving their goals which might receiving the prize, award, or reputation but

what they would be for this achievement would be their health or even life. For instance, Taylor

Hooton was pitcher on his high school team and was recommended to take steroids to grow

faster but it developed depression in him progressively. Every day, the depression was increasing

and made him to have sessions with the psychiatrist; that was the time when he was advised to

stop using steroids but it did not work and Taylor hanged himself in his. In fact, it was because

the users of steroids experience profound depression after abruptly they stop consuming the drug

(“Taylor Hooton, 17, Steroids, 2019). Thus, though doping can help achieving momentary
 Should Doping be Prohibited in Sports? 3

achievements but it can have negative effects on the user’s health; therefore it should be

prohibited in sports.

Another reason that doping should be banned in sports is that it destroys fairness in

sports. First, as taking PEDs has side effects on the athlete’s health not every athlete will be

ready to take the PEDs in cost of health risks and it creates challenges and problems in terms of a

having a fair competition where athletes compete each other with equal characteristics which is

the core principal in sports competition; to that end, the idea to make all athletes to dope is

completely irrational and impossible. Moreover, if doping is permitted in sports it will benefit

rich athletes in national level and rich countries in an international level like Olympic Games.

Hereby, winnings in sport competitions would not be based on merit but money; meaning the

more money you have the more chances you get to win. For instance, though doping is not

allowed now in the international competitions, Russia, one of the rich countries in the world,

supports its athletes to dope. Russia state supported doping by its athletes in majority of summer

and winter Olympic Games but it was concealed (“Russia state-sponsored doping across majority

of Olympic sports, claims report”, 2016). To bring up an exact example of how much doping

costs, Alex Rodriguez an American former professional baseball shortstop, said on a TV show

that it costed $40 (Sinn, 2017). Therefore, to promote sustain fairness and real spirit of sports,

doping should be prohibited.

The opponents of the idea that doping should be prohibited gives argues and claim that it

should not. Steadman (2012) states that the doping has increased and controlling it will not end.

He claims that though it may seem abnormal but doping might be the unavoidable future of

sport. To that end, he adds that athletes will reach to a wall in sports and to make keep the sports

interesting forever allowing doping is the way. In contrast, permitting doping only to make sports
 Should Doping be Prohibited in Sports? 4

interesting disregarding its side effects on the athlete’s health and the unfairness that it creates in

sports cannot be a stratifying reason to allow doping in sports. On the other hand, just because

controlling doping seem to be permanent and will not end is giving up on cheating and

destroying integrity in sports.

To conclude, doping and use of Enhance Performance Drugs should be banned in sports

since it is side effects on an athlete’s health is more than its momentary advantages. In addition,

doping destroys fairness of sports. Though, there are organizations which are working to sustain

free-doping sports, considering the negative consequences of doping on athletes and sports,

people and government should support the prohibition of doping in sports.

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References

‌ Harrison G. Pope, Ruth I. Wood, Alan Rogol, Fred Nyberg, Larry Bowers, Shalender Bhasin,

Adverse Health Consequences of Performance-Enhancing Drugs: An Endocrine Society

Scientific Statement, Endocrine Reviews, Volume 35, Issue 3, 1 June 2014, Pages 341–

375, https://doi.org/10.1210/er.2013-1058

Lance Armstrong: Usada report labels him “a serial cheat”. (2012, October 11). BBC Sport.

Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/19903716

Russia state-sponsored doping across majority of Olympic sports, claims report. (2016). BBC

Sport. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/sport/36823453

Sinn, D., Alex Rodriguez says peds cost him 40 million hall fame and more (2019). US Today.

Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/10/14/alex-rodriguez-

says-peds-cost-him-40-million-hall-fame-and-more/764757001/

Steadman, I, (2019). How Sports Would Be Better With Doping. WIRED. Retrieved from

https://www.wired.com/2012/09/sports-and-doping/

Taylor Hooton, 17, Steroids. (2019).Just Think Twice. Retrieved from

https://www.justthinktwice.gov/true-stories/taylor-hooton-17

Understanding the risks of performance-enhancing drugs. (2018). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/performance-enhancing-

drugs/art-20046134
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‌What is doping. (2010). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/anti-

doping/youth-space/what-is-doping/

Why do people cheat. (2010). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-

sciences/themes/anti-doping/youth- space/why-do-people-cheat/