Severance 1

Tyler Severance

Professor Sobocinski

English Composition

1, May 2022

Performance enhancing drugs

Many athletes throughout the years in professional and collegiate sports have found

themselves in the decision between taking performance enhancing drugs or not. These athletes

are put in tough situations everyday where they have to perform at their best ability to keep their

job. The pressure really forces the athletes to find ways to perform at this ability and the problem

is some choose the wrong path and use performance enhancing drugs. The athletes take this

option because it is the easiest answer to their problems that they are having with their body.

Athletes think that performance enhancing drugs give them a competitive advantage, they forget

to see the harm that they are doing to their body.

Steroids are one of the most commonly used performance enhancing drugs used

throughout sports. These steroids have many risks that come along with them such as aggressive

behavior, high blood pressure and lastly heart and blood circulation problems. The biggest risk of

all with taking performance enhancing drugs is death. Athletes use these drugs to help them

perform at the maximum level they can, but also some athletes just want their muscles to look

bigger so they are more intimidating. These drugs can make the athletes feel better and perform

at their best ability but most athletes do not think about the risk that will come later in their life

from taking steroids. The professional organizations are trying to educate players on the risk that

they are taking using steroids.

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There are so many risks that are involved with the risk of using performance enhancing

drugs these are just a few of the risks. One of the first risks liver damage because the drugs are

processed here and the drugs are unnatural to your body. This causes the liver to deteriorate

because it makes it work harder than it needs to. The second risk is hypertension, this is when the

drugs increase your blood pressure and could lead to a stroke or other damage to the body. The

third risk is aggressive behavior, this is caused becaused steroids cause an increase in

testosterone. The drugs producing this cause men to be more aggressive because testosterone is

the leading cause of how men behave. The final risk that comes with the risk of taking steroids is

the irregular heartbeat. This can happen because steroids cause you to want to work harder and

not stop for anything, so your blood begins to flow faster because your heart is triggered to work

harder. When the effects of the athletes heart may not know how to calm back down and their

heart may not know how to slow back down causing an irregular heartbeat. These risks are

something that athletes choose to accept every time that they consume performance enhancing

drugs.

The first reason that athletes use performance enhancing drugs is the athletes are trying to

make a living for themselves and their families. If the athletes do not perform to their best ability
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they are not going to get paid and some will be put out of a job not making any money. An

example of an athlete that was caught doping was a boxer by the name of Larry Olubamiwo. He

was banned after testing positive for 13 different kinds of performance enhancing drugs. “Larry

talks about how he is definitely not the only boxer that is doping in the sport. He claims that he

was just trying to make a living and provide for his family. He thought that it was worth the risk

to take these drugs so he could compete with the other boxers at the same level”(Donald). Larry

just wanted to provide for his family and he was willing to take the risk just like other athletes in

professional and collegiate sports.

To back this point of athletes trying to make a living Barry Bonds and Alex Rodiquez

wanted to be popular and make a name for themselves. One of the first players to experience this

was Barry Bonds. For example, when he became eligible for the Hall of Fame, he only received

just over half the votes he needed to be inducted. His popularity decreased because fans felt that

using PEDs was cheating. According to CBS Sports, there is a chance that Bonds could

eventually get in the Hall of Fame, but fans would have to forgive him and believe that he was a

good player before steroids. Since Barry Bonds used steroids during the most dominant seasons

of his career, fans and voters are less likely to vote him into the Baseball Hall of Fame or

acknowledge him as one of baseball’s greatest players. Another player to experience a loss in fan

popularity was Alex Rodriguez. So, he is never to be considered as an all-time Yankee great

because of his use of steroids. According to the Washington Post “many fans were disgusted

with the cheaters and hoped that Alex would be the new hope, but his use of PEDs made him

lose that chance in the fan’s eyes” (Shipley). Using steroids made Barry Bonds and Alex

Rodriguez less popular with the fans and even though they both had great lifetime career stats,

they may struggle to get the needed votes for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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A second reason that these athletes use performance enhancing drugs is to make them

look bigger and stronger. These drugs also allow the athletes to work harder and not feel the

effects on their body after performing these activities. This gives them the factor of intimidation,

and this is something that athletes love to have over their opponents. For example, “steroids and

related hormones (such as testosterone) are used to increase muscle mass and strength by

promoting testosterone production. Steroids can also aid with recovery from workouts by

reducing and helping heal the damage to muscles that occurs during workout sessions, enabling

an athlete to work out harder and more often while minimizing the risk of overtraining. Some

athletes may also value the aggressive feelings that steroid use can lead to, casually referred to as

“roid rage”(Students). Athletes love when they do not have to spend time on recovery so these

drugs become even more appealing to them.

To back this second reason athletes want to be bigger and stronger, this increases their

statistics to make them look better. An athlete that supports the decision on why athletes choose

to take these performance enhancing drugs is Alex Rodriguez. He was a professional baseball

player for the New York Yankees and used performance enhancing drugs through three seasons

from 2001 to 2003. Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids and he also tested positive for

the use of testosterone, so therefore is ability to perform was super enhanced. All of his statistics

took a dramatic jump in performance during his three seasons of using steroids,“ His homerun

average jumped to a super-slugging 52 per season, compared with 36 during his first four

seasons in the league and about 42 since. His runs-batted-in (RBI) statistics and total games

played also peaked. Even so, his batting average has dipped over his career, from .315 to .305

during his steroid days to .303 over the past five seasons”(Hadhazy). These stats show the
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positives that athletes get filled up with about performance enhancing drugs, that they miss the

negative side effects.

A reason that steroids are giving athletes the advantage is players get stronger and better

at the game. One example is the increase in Tommy John Surgery which requires steroid use for

recovery; pitchers come back pitching harder, faster and longer. According to the Washington

Post, Frank Joe, who was a team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers, “claimed that Tommy

John Surgery added an extra two miles per hour to a pitchers fastball” (Shipley). Since pitchers

are throwing faster and harder, batters believe they need PEDs to hit better off these enhanced

pitchers. As a result of these batters using PEDs, there have been more home runs in the last ten

years than over the previous decade. In an article by Sports Illustrated, “home runs are flying out

of the ballpark at the highest rate in baseball history” (Baumgartner). Many people argue that

hitters need PEDs because pitchers are throwing faster and stronger when using PEDs for

recovery from Tommy John Surgery.

Another example that backs the idea that athletes want to be bigger and stronger is they

want to be able to compete at the same level as other athletes. The short term effect of the

performance enhancing drugs appeal to these athletes but the long term effect of these drugs has

truly not been thoroughly studied. In the short term these drugs improve endurance, reduce

fatigue and improve alertness. These athletes want to compete at the highest level, “Most serious

athletes will tell you that the drive to win is fierce. Besides the satisfaction of personal

accomplishment, athletes often pursue dreams of winning a medal for their country or securing a

spot on a professional team. In such an environment, the use of performance-enhancing drugs

has become increasingly common”(Staff). These athletes really just want the positive effects of

these drugs that they do not care if the drugs could cause harm to their body at a later date.
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A third reason that athletes use performance enhancing drugs is the theory of planned

behavior. This is the idea the environment, pears, and social standards can predict the behavioral

choice the athlete makes. Researches have began to look at the mental side of why these athletes

male these decisions, “One of the most prominent models is the Theory of Planned Behavior

(Ajzen, 1991) which states that attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control together

make up the factors contributing to an individual’s intentions, and an individual’s intentions

predict their actions”(Shelley). This really shows that the mental mind of an athlete when they

are presided with the option to take these performance enhancing drugs is very predictable.

Athletes being this predictable shows why it is so easy for an athlete to take the option of being

bigger, stronger and faster over the option of not taking steroids.

A counter argument to why athletes should take performance enhancing drugs is the idea

that technically every athlete uses them. A Doctor conducted research on the effect of caffeine,

“As a society we use drugs to enhance ourselves. We wake up and drink a cup of coffee that has

caffeine in it”(McRae). There are athletes that wake up every morning and enjoy a cup of coffee,

so athletes argue why it is not ok to use steroids if they are doing the same purpose. The research

does show that the effects of steroids are much more severe than the effects of caffeine. So the

point the professional leagues make of caffeine not being a severe problem like the use of the

anabolic steroids. Athletes make a good counter argument in this situation but the overall effect

that steroids have on your body are so huge that they can not allow athletes to consume them.

A second alternative point of view to the use of anabolic steroids is the use of alternative

drugs. Scientists conducted a research experiment and found as of 2014 there were a reported 73

documented deaths of athletes from using performance enhancing drugs in the United Kingdom.

Some of the athletes stated that they did not know they had taken the drug, but when they took a
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drug test the doctors found performance enhancing drugs in their system. The doctors conducted

a study that the athletes do not need the drugs to get the feeling of having them. They found the

athletes that were told they were given a performance enhancing drug performed just as well as

the people who were given a performance enhancing drug. This research shown by (McWatt)

shows the alternative of using performance enhancing drugs. They found, “ Firstly, we examined

what would happen when athletes performed at maximal intensity when they believed they had

taken a performance enhancing drug but had in fact taken a placebo (we informed them that they

had taken high doses of caffeine, a substance that, although legal in sport, can still enhance

performance” (McWatt). They found that when the athletes were told that they had consumed the

drugs they were more likely to perform at the same level no matter if they had consumed the

drug or not. This shows that there are alternative options to taking the anabolic steroids and

harming their bodies.

In conclusion performance enhancing drugs are going to be a continually growing

problem throughout professional sports. There are so many pros to taking steroids that the athlete

neglects the bad things that they can do to the body. The athletes only care about making a name

for themselves, providing for themselves, being bigger and stronger, and finally the theory of

planned behavior. These athletes are so caught up in these points that they do not care if they are

harming their bodies in the long run. Athletes think that performance enhancing drugs give them

a competitive advantage, they forget to see the harm that they are doing to their body.
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Work Cited

Baumgaertner, Gabriel, et al. “As Home Runs Rise, Baseball's PED Problem Remains.” SI.com,

2016, www.si.com/mlb/2017/05/16/ped-suspensions-home-run-rate.

Donald McRae. (April 20, 2020 Monday). Larry Olubamiwo: 'Athletes dope for money. My goal

was to make a living'; The former boxer and Ben Johnson fan banned for doping shares

his views while challenging received wisdom on drugs in sport. The Guardian (London).

https://advance-lexis-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/api/document?

collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:5YPY-N341-F021-60W9-00000-

00&context=1516831.

Hadhazy, Adam. “Do Anabolic Steroids Make You a Better Athlete?” Scientific American,

Scientific American, 11 Feb. 2009, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-rod-

steroids-better-athlete/.

Saxena, Shivangi. “Performance Enhancing Drugs - Types, Benefits, Risks & Side Effects.”
Medindia, Medindia, 28 July 2021, https://www.medindia.net/patientinfo/performance-
enhancing-drugs.htm.

Shelley, Jake, et al. “Racing Clean in a Tainted World: A Qualitative Exploration of the

Experiences and Views of Clean British Elite Distance Runners on Doping and Anti-

Doping.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 12, July 2021, pp. 1–16. EBSCOhost,

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edb&AN=151306463&site=eds-live.
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Shipley, Amy. “Do Steroids Give A Shot in the Arm?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30

Apr. 2006,

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/29/AR2006042901195.html.

Staff , Mayo Clinic. “Understanding the Risks of Performance-Enhancing Drugs.” Mayo Clinic,

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 4 Dec. 2020,

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

drugs/art-20046134#:~:text=Why%20are%20these%20drugs%20so,out%20harder

%20and%20more%20frequently.

Students , Northwestern. “Exploring Topics in Sports: Why Do Athletes Risk Using Performance

Enhancing Drugs?” Exploring Topics in Sports: Why Do Athletes Risk Using

Performance Enhancing Drugs?: School of Professional Studies | Northwestern

University, 14 July 2015,https://sps.northwestern.edu/stories/news-stories/why-do-

athletes-risk-using-PEDs.php.