Performance Drus in Sports

When you think way back to the time of the first couple of Olympics, you think of men who were chiseled because of the life they lived. Now, skip a few hundred years to today’s Olympic game’s and you see chiseled athletes who are that way because they have work an enormous amount of hours to make their body a well oiled machine. That body is sculpted for that particular reason. With today’s technology athletes can train the precise muscles that help them gain an edge in the sporting event of their liking.

As you may also know, to run faster, jump higher, and to be stronger than the next guy, some athletes have chosen an illegal route. When I say illegal, I am not talking with the law. Now some methods may be on the left line of the law, but I am talking about in the eyes of sport commissioners and sports authorities. And we can not forget the Public.

The speed and strength of today’s athletes have made it more of a reason to get an edge. Either to save your job or to prove to everyone that you still have what it takes to win. With players coming strait out of high school in some sports, athletes are trying to stay on the roster more than ever. Money is the biggest motivator in sports; sure the thought of winning a championship is always present but, the chance of winning a championship is so small. When you account for every piece you need to win it all. You being in the right spot, at the right time is very unlikely. One of the best examples of being in the right place at the right time is, Dan Marino. This man holds about every record in professional football, for a quarter back. Yet, he has no ring or a trophy in his trophy case at home. He never had a great running back, or when he finally got a decent running back, his defense was sub-par. He just was unlucky in the sense, that he never had the correct piece of the puzzle.

Even though cheating is still cheating, the drug that is used to enhance one human’s ability can be the same drug that makes another human regain the use of his or her legs faster. Human growth hormone (also known as H.G.H) is one of the newest ways to cheat and not get caught. Since the body produces HGH through the pituitary gland it is very hard to detect. This leads me to the question. If it is undetected and is used for the good of helping people rebuild their muscles faster. Is it still cheating?

If you were to ask the public you would receive different opinions. They would range from; it is definitely cheating, to if it is helping them recover, then what’s the harm. Where is that fine line? If a player was taking for the reason of faster recovery, is it still cheating? In the eyes of professional sports it is. No if, ands, or buts about it. In most pro sports there is a person waiting next to a phone, who waits for players to call. If a player is standing in the Pharmacy of a local Walgreen’s, he or she can call this person with the ingredients on the back of the bottle. Then the person on the other end of the phone can give them the yea or nay.

If you have been living under a rock, then you may not have heard about the scandal involving Barry Bonds. If you just lifted the rock, then let me explain. Bonds is about to break the single most impressive record in sports. He is sitting at 734 home runs, and needs 21 more to break Hank Aaron’s record. He is on the verge of being indicted on an investigation the federal government is doing on steroids in professional baseball. It doesn't weigh on me at all," said Bonds, who has a clause in his $15.8 million contract that provides the Giants the right to void his contract if he's indicted, according to two people with direct knowledge of the contract. "It's just you guys talking. It's just media conversation. "I'm not concerned about it. I leave it up to you guys to make those discussions."(Nightengale, 2007) Remember, he still hasn’t been proven guilty, but there is a possibility he may have taken drugs unknowingly. He has admitted to using a sports cream that another player has given him. Other than that, the biggest issue is, if he does break the record before anything is resolved in this case, does his record deserve to still stand. There is talk of putting an asterisk next to his name.

Another example of a pro player using steroids is with Rafael Palmeiro. He is a player who was named in Jose Conseco’s book “Juiced”. He also named players like Mark McGuire and other pro baseball players. Palmeiro may not have lied under oath, but the very next year he was suspended for testing positive. You may remember him for shaking his pointed finger at Congress saying “I have never used steroids, period”. Well the next baseball season he was suspended for ten games for a positive test. Not only placing his size fourteen foot