Free Debating Drugs In Sports Essay Sample

The International Olympic Commission and other professional leagues believe that by banning doping their sport will become cleaner and level playing field will be developed. EPO is used by cyclists to produce red blood cells in their body that has haemoglobin, which carries oxygen to the athletes’ muscles. More oxygen helps in increasing the energy and better stamina. There are drug companies that sell artificial EPO but it is banned for athletes. This is achieved through ‘altitude chambers’ that requires athletes to sleep at altitude of 14,000 ft and above and train at sea level, this increases the EPO to artificially raise hermatocrit.
Some world renowned athletes die early from cancer, heart diseases, diabetes and early onset dementia. Some of them die from premature joint deterioration after years of pounding and many of them look worse due to the oxidative damages that overwhelm their anti-toxicant systems. An athlete at peak fitness is very close to the state of physical breakdown. Here the IOC is to blame who attract these young athletes into the world of million dollar endorsements and gold medals and then they ban them from using these drugs and create athletes that are overly injured, overtrained and close of physical breakdown.
There is no clear solution to the use of drugs in sports as legalization would is clearly not the solution for these athletes’ health. In 1997, the President of IOC Juan Antonio Samaranch expressed his thoughts by stating that there is need for class of sports where doping is allowed and acknowledged. Francesco Moser once stated ‘Pure cycling is just and illusion, there comes a stage when a rider must be told the effects of a medicine’. Then if the athlete wants to use it, let them have it. There are two problems associated with doping in cycling. Firstly, not all cyclists want to dope nor do they dope. Many of them would like to race cleaned get tempted to dope as they need to keep up with those who are doping to maintain competitive edge. The modern doping with oxygen-vector is highly effective leaving the riders with just two options either stay clean and fall behind or dope and keep up.
Secondly, all doping techniques are not equal. The most effective techniques are expensive and sophisticated; some of the star riders have paid 50,000 Euros for taking substance for better performances. If there is any chance that doping gets legalized, the richest teams and drivers will get access to these techniques easily and the ones with less money will be left behind. The playing field would still not get level.
Finally, even if this issue gets past the initial hurdles, one question will remain debatable what can get legalized and how will it be enforced. As one of the riders in the 2002 Tour de France, Michael Rasmussen was thrown from the race after he attempted use of Hemopure, a synthetic blood substitute. Using Hemopure is breaking federal law in most countries except South Africa where it is approved for medical use. It is claimed that Baseball legend Barry Bond too used substance called Trenbolone that is a veterinary product intended for cattle. Medical ethics and laws prevent athletes from using any substance outside their clinical trials. But many athletes eagerly seek anything that will help them in getting competitive edge and help them achieve their goals.