Drug Use in the Olympics

Drug Use in the Olympics

The desire to win is often linked to the nature of sports. In the last several years, many Olympic athletes have been caught in the scandal of performance enhancing drugs. One of the most famous cases involves Russia’s nation-wide doping program, which resulted in the disqualification of over 100 athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympics (Rumsby, 2016). Even though the use of performance-enhancing drugs allow athletes to play sports at the peak of their human abilities, it comes with many consequences including damage to the athlete’s health, emotional state, as well as challenging the meaning of the Olympics. Thus, performance-enhancing drugs should not be used in the Olympics.

To begin, the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) such as steroids causes negative effects on the user’s health. Although many may argue that steroids can be healthy with proper medical supervision, it is certainly not true in all cases (Edgendorf, 2007). The prolonged use of steroids may lead to health effects such as liver and kidney damage, as well as increasing the risks of cancer and tumors (“Effects of PEDs”, 2014). In severe cases, PEDs may even cause stokes and heart attacks leading to death. Thus, the negative health effects of PEDs may severely hinder an athlete’s ability to perform well in the Olympics, and therefore should not be used in future games.

Aside from physical side effects, performance-enhancing drugs can also cause emotional side effects such as mood swings, irritabilities, depression and delusions (“Effects of PEDs”, 2014). Specifically, the emotional side effects of steroid use is so common that it even coined the term “Roid Rage”, which describes a condition where the steroid user acts aggressively and is more likely to engage in criminal activities (“Roid Rage”, 2013).  As well, prolonged usage of PEDs creates a dependency on the drug for the athlete, and the drug becomes an addiction (“Anabolic Steroid Addiction and Abuse”, 2017). By that time, withdrawal from PEDs will be difficult, especially if the athlete is already relying on it for the Olympics. Consequently, PEDs should not be used in the first place to prevent the emotional hassle of drug withdrawal.

Lastly, the use of PEDs also devalues the meaning of the Olympics. The Olympic games is not about winning, it is about having all the countries in the world come together and compete with integrity (Cowart, 2015). If drug use is involved, then that integrity would be violated and athletes will try to do anything to win the games (Reardon, 2014). Athletes will keep increasing the dosage of PEDs to outperform each other, making the Olympics a never-ending cycle of violence. Therefore, PEDs should be banned from the Olympics so that athletes from all over the world can come together and compete fairly in unison.