In today’s sports, such as baseball, basketball, and football, athletes need to be in prime condition in order to compete at such a high level. Year after year athletes are elevating their sport. Competing at the level they are at is getting harder and harder each and every year. They are setting the bar so high that it almost feels impossible to make it as a young athlete. Athletes all have their ways of staying strong, fit, and fueled. Some drink sports drinks and eat hefty meals. Some work out and do it the old way. Some athletes choose to disregard the right and legal way and take performance enhancing drugs.
These drugs make you stronger, faster, and can make you go longer. These drugs are very effective and help a lot, but the fact of the matter is, they are illegal. It’s no question these are unfair. It’s like if Tom Brady had a bionic arm and the rest of the quarterbacks had just a normal arm. It’s unfair and just not right. These drugs can also give you major side effects like chest pains, bleeding, headaches, and in some cases more serious conditions, like heart problems and brain failure.
One big controversy regarding PED’s, ( Performance Enhancing Drugs ) right now, is cyclist Lance Armstrong’s confession to drug use. Lance Armstrong is an American cyclist who won many events such as the tour de france, the longest and most popular race in the world, several times. He is an icon for any cyclist. He has always seemed like a very nice and innocent guy and nobody thought he would do drugs. But recently he was tested positive for PED’s. He has just confessed last week to Oprah on live television that he has used PED’s most of his career. A lot of people neglect that their is actually a large use of this in cycling. A top – notch professional cyclist can travel 20 miles per hour up a pitch of 40 degrees and can do this for at least 45 minutes without losing energy. Even though Lance is incredibly fit, later towards his career he needed that little boost to enable him to still compete, and that is what led to Lance’s drug use problem.
It makes a lot of people mad at what sports are coming too these days. Steroids are unfair and a little bit selfish too. A lot of people don’t care much if someone is doing PED’s, but it really is cheating. I feel that about one – quarter of the top athletes are doing drugs. Athletes are doing whatever they can and taking whatever they can, to make the millions they are and to stay on top of their sport.