Drugs in Sport

Will there ever be an end

By: Brandon Akins

 

 

Since sport started becoming a major part in society many years ago,  it has picked up many trends some good and some bad. On October 6th, 2012 we as a class talked about one of the fastest growing trends in sport today which is drugs in sport.  I have provided a video above that discusses almost everything we spoke about on this topic. The video really goes into detail and i recommend you watch it for a complete and full understanding of what these drugs are, what types, how they are used, and why they are used. 

 

Source: Justin Gatlin

On page 180 of the text Coakley says performance-enhancing substances are difficult to define. Stubtances can include anything from aspirin to heroin; they may be legal or illegal, harmless or dangerous, natural synthetic, socially acceptable or unacceptable, commonly used or exotic. He then states they may produce real physical changes, psychological changes, or both. This means that sport organizations face challenges whenever they develop antidoping programs and must define what they mean by doping. In the past 25 years there has been countless athletes that have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. House hold names have been accused of taking these performance enhancing drugs tarnishing their legacy, such as: Barry Bonds(MLB), Mark Mcgwire(MLB), Jose Canseco(MLB), Lance Armstrong(cycling),  Justin Gatlin(Track & Field), Shawne Merriman(NFL), Chris "the birdman" Andersen (NBA)  just to name a few. We stated in class that Drug use in sport and society are reaching endemic proportions and do not seem to be slowing down. Here is a list of some of the reasons why these athletes take performance enhancing drugs:

Reasons for taking Performance Enhancing Drugs

winning gives financial rewards

2.      the desire to be the best at all cost

3.      to recover from injury quicker or to mask pain

4.      make the most of a short sporting life

5.      influenced by others to improve performance immorally

6.      will to win overrides conscience

7.      to meet expectations of others

8.      willing to risk cheating for public acclaim

9.      natural ability not good enough

10.  better results lead to better sponsors and endorsement contracts

Prior to 2005, most pro leagues didn't test for PED's on a regular and random basis. When we look at the four major leagues we see they have all picked up drug use policies and all do random regular tests which come with suspensions.

 





NHL - No drug testing prior to 2005, new policy negotiated in the latest CBA. First offense 20 game suspension, second offense 60 game, third offense permanent.

NBA - tests for steroids and "street drugs." Increased penalty in last CBA to 10 game suspension for first offense, 25 games for second offense and lifetime ban for a third.

MLB - instituted a new drug policy in Jan. 2005. 50 games for first, 100 games, for a second, and a lifetime ban for a third.

NFL - most stringent testing policy (1987), spent $10 million on steroid abuse programs, HGH testing (2011). Mandatory 4/8/12 game suspension.

 





Drug testing has became one of the main protocols for the Olympics in a society where doping is very relevant. Here is an article that talks about the testing of the athletes that participated in the London games and it has interactive charts where you can see how many tested positive and the percentage to the total number of athletes in that sport "Doping in Olympics events: how does each sport compare?"

 

Some of the findings were:

 

- Of the 26 sports included in the 2012 Games, the worst offender in terms of the rate of findings per sample (averaged across all eight years) is cycling, 3.71%.

-The second highest rate - 3.05% - was found among boxers. Badminton had the lowest rate of usage-indication findings per sample, at 0.87%.

-Footballers were the most tested athletes in terms of the total number of samples (30,398), followed by athletics (25,013), cycling (21,427) and aquatics (13,138).