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DO PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS BELONG IN SPORT?

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INTRODUCTION

Interview Panel Specs

Do performance-enhancing drugs belong in sports? This question has been pondered since the very first instance of cheating where athletes would take testosterone from sheep testicles and ingest it. From Maria Sharapova to Lance Armstrong there have been numerous accounts of cheating within athletic competitions. With perspectives from a variety of parties including doctors, governmental figures, and athletes, this ongoing question can be answered, and it is with no doubt that performance-enhancing drugs do not belong in sports.
The layout of this interview is to use previously found quotes from each of the respective parties and use that to help propose arguments for why performance-enhancers should or shouldn't be allowed.

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ATHLETE PANEL

Jennifer Sey and Roger Federer

Here are the varying perspectives that these two distinguished athletes provided.

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"When athletes compete at the highest levels, all that matters is winning. The environment can become cultlike, in that normal standards no longer apply...


I don't blame the athletes like Marion Jones for juicing their performance with a little extra oomph. She's caught up in her sport; she needs that little somethin' somethin' to maintain her edge. Everyone else is doing it. If you shot me up with whatever she had, I wouldn't be the fastest woman alive. It was still her out there on that track."

Analysis:

Sey proposes the idea that steroids do not make or break an athlete, in the end, even if they are using performance-enhancers, it is still that athlete that is on the track and not a random couch potato souped up on steroids. This justifies the use of performance-enhancers in sports through the ideology that they merely enahance performance, they can't change someone.

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"But I think our sport needs to do the upmost to try to make sure the integrity stays and that the fans don't tune into different sports just because they don't trust the players anymore.

"I've always been fighting to make sure we have enough testing (for drugs)."

Analysis:

Federer proposed the idea that performance-enhancers must be banished from sports because they undermine the integrity of the sport which takes away from its charm. More testing must be put in place so their will be less drugs and therefore higher integrity within the sport.

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DOCTOR PANEL

Norman Fost and Robert L. Simon

Here are the answers the two doctors provided to the interview question.

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NORMAN FOST

"[W]e allow people to do far more dangerous things than play football or baseball while using steroids. We allow people to bungee-jump, to ski on advanced slopes, to cliff dive. To eat marbled meat or ice cream pie every day if they want. I don't think we want to go down a path in which we restrict and even criminalize behaviors just because they have health risks. And steroids are so low on the list of drugs or diets that cause serious harm I don't understand why we would start there."

Analysis:

Fost justifies the use of performance-enhancers through the comparison to everyday lives. Fost realised that the main reason why performance-enhancers were banned was due to the fact that they propose a variety of health risks. However, Fost considers the many different health risks that we face in everyday life and how they vary from the health effects of performance-enhancers.

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"I would argue that prohibition [of steroids] is justified because (1) steroid use makes little sense if everyone uses; gains are minimal and everyone is exposed to the risks, (2) how your body reacts to a steroid is not an athletic talent like running or hitting, and (3) it's worth protecting the ideal of sport as a healthy pursuit. Critics might reply that it is better to give people choices, but I would give greater weight to protecting the idea of sport as a healthy pursuit where the rules make sense when applied to everyone and that we focus on athletic ability, not how one's body reacts to a drug."

Analysis:

Simon sides with Federer on how they undermine the integrity of the sport, however, also considers the ideology of sports, for example, healthy pursuits etc. He uses these ideas to enforce the importance of safety and purity within sports. 

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GOVERNMENTAL/ORGANISATIONAL  PANEL

Gary R. Roberts and Joe Biden

Here are the two answers the parties provided to the interview question.

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"Home runs are hit only because the player has great skill at swinging a bat at a little ball coming at him at over 90 mph. Most of the folks reading this could take steroids all their lives and still not be able to hit that little ball. 

If someone wants to earn millions of dollars being a professional baseball player, he may feel pressured to use steroids to make himself the best that he can be. If he doesn't want to take those health risks, he can take his chances or go into some other line of work. Nobody forces anyone to be a baseball player. That is true for guys who fight oil well fires, tame lions, or do dangerous stunts for the movies, as well. 

In short, if the public wants to see 500 foot home runs and there are young men willing to run the health risks associated with taking substances that allow them to hit those home runs and make millions of dollars, why not cut the pretense of public outrage and let them do it?"

Analysis:

Roberts tell us that performance-enhancing drugs do not create skill, using baseball as an example. This can justify performance-enhancers being allowed in sports because of the fact that they won't completely altercate and change the game, merely improve the performance of these already talented athletes.

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"The BALCO steroid scandal proved that athletes who can make millions are willing to spend thousands to gain an edge and not get caught. It is time for all pro sports in America to get in line with the high standards of the Olympics. Steroid users of all ages believe it will make them stronger, but they ignore the serious health hazards. It puts people at greater risk for heart attacks and strokes, increases aggressiveness, stunts growth and can cause liver and kidney damage. Many of these side effects are irreversible...
This truly is a national problem, and the seriousness and urgency with which athletes, owners, educators, parents and community leaders confront it will speak volumes about the kind of society in which we want to live and the values we cherish."

Analysis:

Biden focuses on the severe health risks that athletes face when using these drugs. He also uses the scale of the problem to establish its severity.

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As you can see, there is a multitude of varying perspectives that use evidence that validates their argument in some aspect. A commonality is that the for performance-enhancers back up the idea that performance-enhancing drugs do not create an athlete, whereas a commonality among the anti-performance-enhancers are the health risks of using performance-enhancers and the integrity of sports.

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TEEN ATHLETES

One of the most marginalized voices in this discussion is the voices of teen athletes. While they do not seem prevalent in the conversation, in the future they will be. It is absolutely essential that the current generation that is dominating sports must instil pure and integral values within aspiring athletes. According to MayoClinic, a medical organisation, 1in 20 teens use steroids for its various benefits. Statistically, one student inside your class is on steroids. This staggering statistic relays the idea of corruption among teens. Because of the fact that this aspiring generation of athletes are the future of sports, it is important for current athletes to establish integrity and not to undermine the values of sports, for example, honesty, fairness, and work ethic. Famous athletes, including Maria Sharapova and Lance Armstrong, are examples of corruption additives within sports. Many young athletes do not value the integrity of their sport more than money. This hierarchy of values makes these aspiring athletes a lot more vulnerable to role models like Maria Sharapova and therefore the idea of using performance-enhancing drugs. While she was on the top of her game in women’s tennis, she obtained sponsorships by Nike, Evian, and Head, according to Aksharit.org. Just from her contract with Head, Sharapova receives two million dollars a year, a fraction of what she was fined for when she was caught cheating with steroids. Sharapova’s case was a prime example of an athlete using performance-enhancing drugs to raise or maintain their spot at the top to receive sponsorships and contracts worth many millions. As you can see, if the athlete’s mindset is on money, it is a no-brainer for them to use performance-enhancing drugs to get money. With many enticing incentives such as money, the consequences are often disregarded. The biggest concern that ensues the use of performance-enhancers are the various health risks that steroids induce which is a huge threat to teen's health and safety. In the end, on the biggest deciding factors on whether performance-enhancing drugs belong in sports are the teen athletes' voices and opinions. As Gary Roberts argued that if athletes want to be better, faster, and stronger, why not let them take the various health risks that are consequences of using performance-enhancers (pictured below; adaiclearinghouse.org), what is not accounted for the is naivety of young athletes and their lack of experience of the world. With all these factors in mind,  the best decisions must be made and result with less corruption within teen athletes and thus the best future for aspiring athletes.

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CONCLUSION

While the debate between doctors, governmental figures, and athletes about whether performance-enhancing drugs belong in sports or not is split down the middle, when we take teen and aspiring athletes into account, it is without a doubt that steroids and performance-enhancers do not belong in sports and users should face greater consequences if caught using them. This is to maintain integrity within sports and to stick to the values of honesty, fairness, and purity. In the end, to maintain these values in sports, it is necessary to ban performance-enhancers from sports, therefore answering our question, "Do performance-enhancing drugs belong in sports?".

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Bibliography

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