The use of performance enhancing drugs in various sports has been a recurrent theme in the news. Great stars that mentor many young athletes are stripped of their medals and any shred of dignity and respect that they fetched during their heydays. Athletes and professional sportspersons result to the use of performance enhancing drugs due to the stiff competition that is constantly arising. Furthermore, the effect of training on performance becomes redundant at some point and many may opt for the easier way out. Performance enhancing drugs are common among short distance athletes (Robinson and Epshteyn, 364). The drugs used nowadays are highly effective and almost undetectable. However, the medics and physicians who assess the athletes’ blood now use very high technology for screening of such blood. The results of such tests may come to revelation many months after the competition. However, if the results are positive for drug use, then they normally end careers (Hamidi et.al, 342).
The main question that one may ask is why competent sportsmen and women result to the use of these drugs. In most cases, misadvise by their managers and greed for the huge prizes that come with the winning of the race fuel the athletes’ use of the drug (Sparks, 123). In other sports, such as rugby, many sports persons abuse performance-enhancing drugs especially during training. Such individuals use drugs such as creatine and other adrenalin boosting drugs to enhance their body’s strength when training. This boosts their fitness levels and makes them lean machines. However, the use of such drugs may be fatal, as has been in the recent past. This is because they cause the body to be subject to extreme pressure that it normally cannot withstand. Young careers have ended with the development of kidney, heart and liver failures due to the use of such drugs.
Sportspersons also suffer from the abuse of illegal and legal drugs such as cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes. Such individuals frequent numerous parties and nightclubs where they engage in use of drugs for ecstasy, and sometimes just because they can. Addictions result from continuous use and eventually such persons struggle with rehabilitation. This is normally after their careers have sprawled and on the brink of extinction (Hannum and Fuller, 641).
One of the best ways for sportspersons to avoid doping and use of drugs to improve their performance is through adherence to a strict diet and training schedule. Furthermore, the trainers and managers ought to be innovative enough to ensure that they can come up with strategic ways of ensuring the player does not plateau. This may involve acquiring a thoroughly competent training partner and setting of high goals (Derse and Wilson, 412). Further, sportspersons ought to receive regular counseling sessions on the threats of doping and various alternatives that are available through dieting. This reduces the number of cases that arise due to utter ignorance.
Most sports persons begin their careers from an early age. It is important that they are trained and mentored on possible challenges to expect and possible changes that may occur in their lifestyles so that they can maintain their sanity and discipline once they have made a lot of money. This reduces the instance of drug abuse that arises from indiscipline and a culture of being pleasure centered (Safran et.al, 875). Failure to put sufficient measures in place will result in a menace that robs our sports world of talent and legends.
Works Cited
Hamidi, Mehrdad, Hajar Ashrafi, and Mohammad-Ali Shahbazi. Drug Abuse In Sport : Doping.
New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2012. Discovery eBooks. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Sparks, Michael. "Drugs And Sport." Sport Marketing Quarterly 16.2 (2007): 123. Business
Source Complete. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Robinson, Tom, and Mikhail G. Epshteyn. Performance-enhancing Drugs. Edina, Minn: ABDO
Pub. Co, 2009. Internet resource.
Hannum, Emily, and Bruce Fuller. Children's Lives and Schooling Across Societies. Amsterdam:
Elsevier JAI, 2006. Internet resource.
Derse, Edward, and Wayne Wilson. Doping in Elite Sport: The Politics of Drugs in the Olympic
Movement. Champaign [u.a.: Human Kinetics, 2001. Print.
Safran, Marc R, Douglas McKeag, and Camp S. P. Van. Spiral Manual of Sports Medicine.
Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven, 1998. Print.
