P.E.D

Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sportsby: Andres Abundiz

What are Performing Enhancing Drugs?

Performance enhancing drugs consist of a variety of substances, including – Medications– procedures – devices that are intended to improve athletic sports performances.

A frequent subject of controversy in the sporting world, the use of performance -enhancing drugs has shown a huge and disturbing growth over the past fifty years.

History of PED

The use of drugs to enhance performance in sports has occurred at least since the time of the original Olympic Games [from 776 to 393 BC].

The origin of the word 'doping' is attributed to the Dutch word 'doop,' which is an opium juice, the drug of choice of the ancient Greeks."

EARLY DOCUMENTED USES

In the 1860s, a group of swimmers in Amsterdam were charged with taking drugs to speed up their races. For the next 80 years or so, athletes who wanted to cheat focused mostly on stimulants to speed themselves up

DISQUALIFIED!

The first athlete to be disqualified for drug use was Hans-Gunnar from Sweden. He won a bronze medal but was disqualified when a post-event drug test showed him positive for cocaine and alcohol in his system.

Moral and Ethical Issues

Many athletes, coaches, politicians and fans feel the use of certain substances is unethical in sports.

The Spirit of Sport

I believe that drugs shouldn’t be used in sports and that any athlete caught using performance- enhancing drugs should be banned from all future sports events without being given second chances.

Pressure is Placed on Athletes to Perform Better

Today's athlete faces an increasingly difficult choice:

to use drugs to enhance performance

or to accept what could amount

to be a competitive handicap that is to be in a competition with other athletes who may certainly be using PEDs.

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson tested positive for stanozolol and was stripped of his gold medal as well as his previous 1987 World Championship title.

Lance Armstrong

• Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs, testosterone, and HGH

• His punishment for using PEDs was to lose all the medals he had ever won.

Why Do Athletes Use PEDs?

• They face a lot of pressure • They want to perform their best • Money

How Athletes Get Performance Enhancing Drugs

• Medical doctors• Pharmacists• Trainers• Coaches

• Anabolic steroids: the effects of androgens include accelerated growth of muscle, bone, and red blood cells, and enhanced neural conduction.

• Human Growth Hormone: HGH promotes and increases the synthesis of new protein tissues, such as in muscle recovery or repair. This is the way new muscle is built.

• Creatine: Increasing strength in people with muscle diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

What Drugs Are Mostly Used

Today's athletes continue to push the boundaries of excellence in performance and physical fitness. Helping these athletes are more refined training methods and technologies.

The Effects of Using PED

• Aching joints and risk of tendon injuries• Blood-clotting problems• High blood pressure• Liver problems• Mood swings

Some Physical Reasons Why We Should Stop PEDs

• Dehydration• Heart problems • Liver problems • Cholesterol• Hypertension• Stroke• Acne

CONSEQUENCES

• If athletes test positive on a drugs charge they may not be eligible to compete for a season.

• If they test positive more than once they can be banned from competition for up to one year. Some may even be banned from competition completely and may no longer able to participate in sport.

CONSEQUENCES

• Some cases of drugs testing are disputed and this can lead to a hearing, arbitration and to courts at both national and international level.

Methods of Detection • Urine Test An athlete is told to submit a urine sample for

testing. The sample is then sent to a laboratory for analysis and the results are reported back to the governing athletic agency.

• Blood test Over time a "blood profile" of an athlete can be built up to help determine average readings for each individual. This can help with blood doping tests in the future

• In the past athletes played for love of the game.• Today the players have so much more at stake

than just being able to play the game because they love it. Athletes will use any means necessary to get performance enhancing drugs (PED).

• These drugs will cost athletes thousands of dollars, but to them it is a small price to pay for the success it can bring to their career.

• The use of performance-enhancing drugs is not accidental; it is planned and deliberate with the sole objective of getting an unfair advantage.

• There are several reasons to ban performance-enhancing drugs: – respect for the rules of sports, – recognition that natural talents and their

perfection are the point of sports

• Realizing that these drugs are bad for sports and also a form of cheating, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) came up with a basic list of principles concerning performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

Teens Using PEDs

• Performance enhancing drugs are also on the rise in high schools.

• Young athletes don’t know or care about the long term effects.

To quote Heywood Broun, “Sports do not build character. They reveal it.” When we use Performing Enhancing Drugs we are cheating our fellow athletes. Our sports need to return to the real spirit of sport where all athletes compete on a level playing field.

Conclusion