Anabolic Steroid Use in Sports :: essays research papers

Drug use has been a incision of competitive sport for almost a century. At thefirst olympics in Athens in 1896, marathon runners drank a mixture ofbrandy and strychnine to help them on their ways and used opiates tocontrol pain during a race. Use of intoxicant was very common in the earlyyears of the twentieth century. It faculty be argued that the first athletesto use drugs to kindle their performance were, in fact, cheating. We dealto remember that drug use is not new. East Germany athletes used drugs to stir their performance. Soviet Union was also involved in drugexperimentation. In the United States the drug culture had become sowidespread that steroids and stimulants were cognise to every high schoolcoach. The use of drug was believed by athletes to enhance performance, inone way or another.Until 1960, nothing was done slightly the issue. The sports council of Europeofficially moved against drugs when it tabled a resolution calling for theprohibition of drugs on ethical , moral and medical grounds.The Olympic games, even though they are only held every 4 years, representthe pinnacle of sporting achievement. The international Olympic Committee(IOC) has a critical role to play in demanding extensive drug testing andin providing funding for such testing.This is a controversial issue. The IOC believes that each of theinternational federations which governs particular sports should beresponsible for its take testing.This seems reasonable enough, but it is argued that the Olympic Games arethe highest profile competition in the world and the most prestigious. Theworld stops to watch them and they represent the culmination of years ofwork for athletes. Winning a gold medal is the reputation to any sporting career.Urine testing is the usual testing method, and it doesnt wear the fullrange of drugs taken to enhance performance. Blood testing is a moreefficient way, it can detect drugs that urine testing cannot.By the beginning of the 1980s, the use of a nabolic steroids had becomequite common. These drugs - and the allied substances, testosterone and humanity growth hormone - were basic muscle builders. They increased mass andstrength, speckle producing, as one side effect, a heightened aggression.In other words, they do winners in sports. The problem seems to be in thedefinition of drug. For example, if it is all regenerate for a competitor totake a pain-killer or a vitamin supplement, why is it not right to stopexhaustion with a caffeine achieve? The answer would seem to be that drugs such