Steroids are the performance enhancement drugs which are taken by individuals to treat a variety of

conditions. Sports players take steroids for several reasons like to increase muscle mass, to increase
stamina, to enhance energy levels etc. In the competitive nature of sports, players have taken steroids
to stand out in performance and ignore the health impact negatively entirely. The motivation to win the
games at any cost have had pushed many players to take steroids.

Naturally, the players that took steroids were performing better than their peers. By indulging in such
activities certain players were taking a short cut towards success. This is where ethics comes into
picture. Success is always attributed to hard work [ CITATION Gil20 \l 1033 ]. But by taking steroids few
players opted for over night success, which according to me is unethical. Other sports persons who were
working round the clock were robbed of their success. Hence this was killing the spirit of the sports.

As exemplified by the situation during steroid era in Major League Baseball, many records were broken
in just 1 year due to the use of steroids. Many MVPs later came out stating that they had won and
performed in a major part of their career under the influence of steroids. This pushed away many sports
enthusiasts as it was believed that the spirit of baseball was lost in the drugs. Due to strict policy now
imposed, the love of the sports is back, and the crowd is turning out more and more every season.

Hence, I believe, by indulging in unethical practices, few sports person not only had a negative impact on
the other good sports person but also impacted the sports. Unethical practice is directly proportional to
the spirit of the game [ CITATION Laz20 \l 1033 ].

References
Gillentine, A. (2020). Sports Ethics for Sports Management Professionals. International Journal of Sports.

Lazuras, L., & Barkoukis, V. (2020). Performance‐ and Appearance‐Enhancing Drug Use in Sports. A
Psychological Perspective.

Great post Rishika. I too believe that players who took steroids helps them to perform better but at the
same time it is unfair to other players who don't use steroids and work hard for their performance. I
believe it is a cheating to use steroids to improve athletic performance and athletes should be penalized
or banned from participating in sports if they consume steroids [ CITATION Bec13 \l 1033 ]. It’s good that
now due to awareness, sports fraternity have introduced policies wherein the test is conducted on each
player periodically. Also, these performance enhancing steroids can have serious, long-term health
consequences on these players, and it may impact their career adversely.

Being in an environment where one person is always in competition with another, they have too many
expectations from the fans and followers to perform best. Players then believe that by using steroids
and medications, they can increase their power but start ignoring the negative impacts of it. It not only
is unfair to their co-players, but it also impacts their own health. Whenever a player is found guilty of
using steroids, actions like immediate suspension should be given to those.
References
Beck, J. (2013). The Only Good Reason to Ban Steroids in Baseball: To Prevent an Arms Race. The
Atlantic.