There are many types of sports played every day all around the world.  All the way from high school to professional organizations, these sports are played by all types of athletes.  Weather the athletes are big or small, tall or short, they compete in many different sports.  With the diversity of athletes, some may think they need to create a way to build more equal play within the sports.  The main goal most athletes come to have is to become the best player who has ever participated in their sport.  One of the ways athletes look to become as good as the athletes who are considered great, is by taking anabolic steroids.  An anabolic steroid is a substance that increases skeletal muscle cells within the human body.  These steroids are used to gain muscle mass faster than normal routines.   Although it can sound beneficial to an athlete, using steroids puts more and more athletes in extreme danger every day.  There are far more negative side effects than positive.  There are still some steroids that are legal to use in some organized sports, and as science improves more steroids are surfacing promising athletes a better performance.  But with more substances at the tips of an athletes fingers, there comes a higher probability for an athlete to get hurt. All types of Anabolic steroids need to be banned in organized sports for every athlete’s safety.  Steroids and sports already have bad history with each other and it is time for this bad relationship to come to an end.  The main points that are involved with anabolic steroids are the history they have in sports, the prevention of using the substances, the negative side effects, and the programs that can be beneficial to athletes who have suffered from these substances already.  

The first use of steroids by athletes goes all the way back to the 700 BC ancient Greeks in the original Olympic Games.  The ancient Greeks created the word “doping” to describe the act of an athletes using steroids.  Although the substances athletes used back then were not as effective as the ones can be today, the ancient Greeks still used them despite the chance of being harmed.  Doping in American sports doesn’t truly start to take off until after World War 2.  Soldiers used a type of steroid called amphetamines to deal with the war and combat.  Around 1960 is when doping becomes a common tactic for athletes in the locker room.  It was normal for a team to supply athletes with pills to help when lifting weights, especially at the college level.  Many college strength coaches brought doping into the professional level from well-known colleges today such as Clemson, Syracuse, and LSU.  

According to Al Ghobain who is a writer for BioMed Central, states “The use of these substances can lead to serious and harmful health hazards…in many cases people have died as consequences of such use”.  The first recorded athlete who’s doping resulted in death was a Danish cyclist named Knut Jensen, who died on August 26, 1960.  Almost all of the athletes who use steroids want to become the best and are blinded of the consequences that come with it.  With knowing the history and consequences of these steroids it can help athletes gain knowledge on why they should not take them, and why the steroids should be banned in all sporting organizations.

An athletes drive to win can be very fierce.  The competition of a sport can leave an athlete to forget about their future and only have one goal.  All the way from winning a high school state championship to obtaining a gold medal for their country, athletes will almost do anything to become successful.  Many athletes think that the use of steroids will automatically give them an easier path to success and they will instantly dominate their competition, but that is not the case.  Steroids have many physical effects on an athlete’s body.  It can be taken as pills, injections, or topical treatments.  Most anabolic steroids are illegal in majority of sports, but there are legal ones that are harmful as well. Athletes that use legal steroids still experience the negative effects, just not as severe as if they took the illegal substances.  Some very dramatic effects legal steroids such as amphetamines have on the body are irreversible organ damage, blood clotting, tendon damage and psychiatric and behavioral disorders.  Even though steroids have a big effect on the body, the substance can also have an effect on how the athlete is looked at and judged by the sport followers.   With most of these steroid users being on TV and the radio, many children may look up to these athletes and believe that it is okay to use steroids since their favorite athlete used them.

Because of the lack of knowledge athletes have on steroids, people believe that if an organization does not ban a substance then there is no danger in taking that substance.  These legal drugs can be very addictive for athletes just as if it were any other drug.  Those that don’t take the legal substances, choose to take the far more addictive illegal drugs in attempt to boost their performance even more.  Some side effects can be experienced immediately and an athletes career can come to a sudden stop.  These illegal substances can affect the human body in different ways, some baing aggressive behavior, heart failure, and infertility.  According to ADIS International “The abuse of anabolic steroids in healthy young athletes has been associated with serious cardiovascular events…and in some cases sudden cardiac death”.    The number of athletes who have suffered and died as a result of these performance enhancers is higher in the 21st century than it was in the 20th century.  The prevention of using steroids in sports is a rough process, especially when it is not taken as seriously as it should.

Anabolic steroids can be so promising with what they can help an athlete achieve.  That is why the prevention of using them is critical.  The prevention can stop many athletes from putting their bodies in danger and reduce the number of injuries involved in the sport.  The National Anti-Doping Association (NADA) is one of the main organizations that helps guides schools, to form better teaching habits and techniques for the prevention of steroids.  One of the many NADA leaders Maria Wippert states “The use of doping by young athletes is a concern in anti-doping work… the earliest age for anabolic steroid and amphetamine use is between 11 and 12 years”.  Due to the lack of knowledge the parents and teachers have about the harms of these substances, young athletes are clueless on the actual dangers of the substances.  In the past, the only thing preventing the use of substances was the threat of being punished by the organization if caught, but not all substances were illegal.  All prevention programs have the same overall goal, which is stopping every single athlete from wanting to use these steroids.  Banning all substances from being used in organized sports will help prevent the consumption because it will keep children and young adults from wanting to use these harmful steroids and coming across the negative side effects.

As stated earlier, the side effects of these performance enhancers can be long term in an athlete’s life.  Many still suffer from side effects even after they are long gone from the game.  Programs have been developed to help reduce the side effects from former athletes.  Although many side effects are permanent, there are still ways programs can help mentally and physically.  The National Anti-Doping Phone-Help Service is just one of the many free programs that can give needed information to athletes all around the world.  

There are also programs implemented in some high schools that help athletes learn new techniques to increase muscle mass to substitute steroids and hopefully prevent athletes from taking them.  In order to create an equal playing field for all athletes, steroids cannot be in the equation.  Programs like the NADA hold seminars and conduct surveys to increase the awareness of steroids and the harm they can have on student athletes.  

Anabolic steroids have more negative than positive effects and should be banned from all types of organized sports throughout the world.  These steroids effect people’s life not only in sports but also in real life.  Anabolic steroids are responsible for multiple athlete’s deaths at all levels of sports.  There are many reasons not to take steroids but yet people choose to use them just to be considered good at a sport that they only will be able to play for a small portion of their lifetime.  Prevention is not where most programs aim for it to be, but is improving every year. The programs in effect to prevent the use of anabolic steroids will hopefully help the number of users to decrease, and eventually stop athletes from using steroids all together.  Organizations can help out with the prevention by banning all types of substances from being used in all sports.
