Why Do Athletes Turn to Performing Enhancing Drugs?
Athletes put endless amounts of hard work and effort into what they do to try and entertain the general public- which may justify why they get paid huge amounts of money, live in the nicest houses, drive fancy cars and seem to live the perfect lifestyle. However, not many people actually understand what an athlete has to put their body through in order to compete at the highest possible standard. We wonder why an athlete would be “stupid” enough to look to Performance enhancing drugs (PED), when realistically a lot of athletes have every reason to.
A massive cause as to why an athlete would not even think twice about popping a pill, or injecting an extra red blood cell into their body is because an athlete and even myself, I have the same mentality as I’m sure every other professional or semiprofessional athlete does- to be the best at what I do. There is no person who doesn’t want to win or be the best at what they do. By using PED’s it allows more competition, as more people are able to compete at that highest standard which with other certain drugs they wouldn’t be able to do. Thus, this then creates a higher entertainment value for the general public who are watching that sport, as competition is deemed to be exciting, allowing fans to be able to justify paying expensive prices for tickets to go watch sporting events as they know they will get their money’s worth. This reason in itself is a massive cause as to why athletes immediately turn to PED’s as they feel pressure to perform, especially through hard times in their sporting career.
Another cause as to why Performing enhancing drugs are also used by athletes to is to try and level the playing field. An example of this is when a boxer is trying to make a certain weight category so that they can fight for a championship belt. The use of an illegal weight gainer could be their only option as their body won’t naturally let them. It is not the athletes fault if they are not able to put on weight themselves, so turning to an illegal substance is the only way to make it ethical and fair. It may be deemed as “morally’ wrong for an athlete to try and find an easy solution and use an illegal substance to try and level the playing field up, and to some this may be deemed as cheating however, in certain scenarios an athlete may have all the talent in the world like a boxer, but in order for them to maximize their potential like trying to go for a title belt, then they may turn to a PED to convert that potential into success.
Olympic Games have been the downfall of many famous athletes that have been caught out using PED. These athletes were potentially idols for certain young children looking to go into that certain event.. Athletes are looked upon as role models, which children growing up want to be like. An example of this is millions of young children will watch wrestling on television and as they grow up. The majority of these will want to look like a wrestler does with the build and muscles they have. However the mainstream of these athletes use illegal substances like steroids. Is that setting an example for young children to aspire to become or should they be banned in all sorts of sporting entertainment and let your body grow at its own pace? But at the same time the reason why wrestlers look to