Drugs in sport Essay Example for Free

Drugs in sport Essay Drugs in sport is a major problem at this moment in time as it is beginning to become easier to attain drugs in your locally area. There is four different aspects that will be looked at in this essay are the four different aspects of drugs in sport which are philosophy, sociology, psychology and physiology. Each of these different aspects is influential in drugs in sport. These issues are major in sport, as they not only affect the professional athletes that people think that they do. A survey taken of sefton Liverpool is only one example how it affects everyone not just professionals. This showed that anabolic steroids had been the third most commonly offered drug behind cannabis and amphetamines, revealing that 6à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4% of boys and 1à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3% of girls had been offered anabolic steroids (Clarke 1999). We can see the problems with drugs in sport in that if children find out there favourite players or athletes are taking these drugs then they must be tempted and the survey shows how easy it is for them to gain possession of the drug. Drugs are a major issue that has to be looked at. Un officially reports claim that there is as many as twenty to forty percent of gym users taking perfromencing-enhancing drugs. This shows the severity of drugs in sport. (Drug scope website) The first aspect to look at is the philosophy of drugs in sport. Philosophy is described as the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence or, a theory or attitude that guides ones behaviour. (Concise Oxford English Dictionary 2004) The philosophy behind dugs in sport is complex as there are many different philosophies that people will take. One reason is because of their desire to win. The win at all costs theory is rife throughout sport at all levels. The fact that drugs are used widely throughout sport is because of this theory. If a competitor thinks that he will be able to get the edge on any of his opponents he will take it. But the win at all cost attitudes towards sport is essential in athletes taking these performance-enhancing drugs. It was really rammed home what length professional athletes will go to become successful and win. The win at all cost mentality was evident at the biggest stage of sport the Olympics. At the last Olympics there were 24 doping violations throughout the whole of the games. This is double the amount found at the previously highest amount taken at the Olympics. (BBC website) It shows that competitors will do whatever it takes to win that gold medal. The philosophy for many people who decide to go ahead and take drugs is because they believe everyone else does. An interview with a professional weightlifter called Tammy Thompson. She showed the philosophy of since everyone else takes drugs then so should I. in the interview she t6alks about the reason why she started to take performance enhancing drugs. Instead of training harder or going to better techniques, I figured they were taking drugs and I would too. Id catch up. (Todd, 1987) This shows one reason behind this competitor took these drugs and why many other do. The theory that when they lose it is because everyone else is taking drugs not because they cant make the grade in there sport. The philosophy of doing what everyone else is doing is probably the main reason for the competitors taking drugs. When you are watching certain sports you automatically believe that they are taking drugs to enhance their performance. Sports like power lifting, or bodybuilding is rife in them and it is obvious that people would take the drugs to keep up with the other people in their sport if they want to be successful. If we look at taking drugs in a philosophic viewpoint, we always come to the fact that does it really affect the persons success. Are these performance-enhancing drugs actually the magic pill the media makes them out to be? (Simon 1984). They may improve the performance of the competitors taking them but they still have to have the desire to be successful and train to make these drugs work. The drug will not suddenly make an average performer become world class. The person still needs to have that core skill and determination to train and win. We see the taking of these drugs as cheating. Gunther Luschen describes cheating as cheating in sport is the act through which the manifestly or latently agreed upon conditions for winning such a contest are changed in favour of one side. As a result, the principle of equality of chance beyond differences of skill and strategy is violated (1976). Throughout your early experience of sport as a child you are told of the philosophy that cheaters never win. But as a child growing up we see people cheating by taking these drugs every day and the children will see these and it will become even more acceptable than it is at this moment in time. Children are seeing there favourite stars suspected of taking drugs such as Rio Ferdinand and they will start to believe that this is all that you can do to become successful in sport. This is just one case of high profile names being found or believed to be taking drugs while competing in sport. When you look on what the philosophy is behind the reason performers take drugs there is a wide selection. But one thing through all the theories that you may find for the use of performance enhancing drugs is that they are related to the person or persons winning. No matter what why they put there reason for taking these drugs it will always come back to the fact that they want to win and be successful. The next factor that I will be looking at the affect of taking the drugs has on a persons psychology. There is psychological affects that come upon a person are different for each stage of use of performance enhancing drugs. Some affects of taking these drugs are to have changes in moods, become more confident in your self and you become more motivated and enthusiastic. These may seem like good affects but these come early in the usage of drugs. Eventually the person will come prone to mood swings; they will create aggressive feeling, which grow into violence and hostile behaviour. (Corrigan 1996) we can see just from these affect the severity of taking these drugs. You think of the amount of people that are on these drugs and you can see the problem that arise with people taking performance enhancing drugs, these violent behaviour are also what led to such incidents as including reckless driving or crashing cars, assaults, marriage break-ups, domestic violence, child abuse, suicide and attempted murder or murder. (Schulte, Hail, Boyer, 1993) We can see the potential havoc that these drugs can cause to a person psychological health. When you look at the psychological effect that taking these drugs have upon the persons taking anabolic steroids one familiar factor continues to arise. This factor is that a person will develop mood disorders. Pope and Katz (1990) found that 22 per cent of bodybuilders and footballers were found to meet the American Psychiatric Associations criteria for a manic or depressive episode while on anabolic steroids, it was also discovered that once stopped taking the drug there symptoms subsided. This shows how taking these steroids can affect a persons psychological well being. The drug affects people in a variety of ways, be it like above in their moods and make them come a bit more depressed. Where as in the other reports found that taking these anabolic steroids affect a person aggression we can see this in a study taken by Choi and Pope (1994) they took study of 24 anabolic steroid user and 14 non users. The findings were that while a person who was taking a drug cycle they were more likely to report verbal and physical fights with their spouse compared with the non-user and people that were not currently on a drug cycle. We can see from these affects that a person has while he or she is on a drug cycle. This is a worrying thought as we have already seen the amount of drug user there is thought to be. Among the community of steroid users there is a term called roid rage, which described by Wright, Grogan and Hunter (2001) as an uncontrollable outbursts of aggression. In report taken by Beel (1994) people who are taking these drugs compare normally to the general public in education, income, height and alcohol consummation. Though are likely to report roid rage as a response to small amounts of provocation. This is a worrying finding if it does not take a lot to make a person go into an uncontrollable fit of rage. We see the stats of how many people can get hold of these drugs and how many people are currently using the drug. But you only realise the fact that it affects the people around them as well. If they take one of these roid rage it may be the people nearest to them they take it out on and in s ome cases that can be there wives or their children. Looking at the overall effect of drugs on the whole on the user psychological state of mind it is worrying thought that there are so many effects that can occur a person during cycles of drug use. These affects are not just affecting the person themselves but the people nearest to them they are also affected. We see all the problems that come with taking these drugs and yet they still take them knowing that they will affects them and this shows that they are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful in there goal. This links in with the philosophy of winning at all costs on previously in the paper. The next factor that I will be looking at is the sociology behind why people take these performance-enhancing drugs. A main factor in the use of these drugs is to enhance their body appearance. When giving reasons for using these performance-enhancing drugs improving body image was most frequently given answer amongst gym users. (Taylor and Black 1987) this answer shows that people are to this being socially acceptable and look the correct way to people. This stems from the public image and the role models that are made of sports stars. Examples are rife in all countries, are it here in Briton where a lot of our superstars are given the clean cut image and built up to a superstar status. You look at Dwain Chambers a major force in 100 meters sprinting who is portrayed to the public as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Chambers ultimately caught with taking banned substance THG while in his training camp in Germany. (Parry 2006) This has ruined his image of a role model. People looking up at chambers will think this must be acceptable and the only way to be successful. It promotes that image in society that to become as successful as him you will have to take performance-enhancing drugs. We see the affect that drugs have in sport through the number of people caught each year. But when you look and see that children are thinking of beginning to play sport and want to be successful you can see the problem. Linford Christie and Olympic medalist himself stated that athletics has become so corrupt with drugs that he would not want he children involved in it. (Savulescu, Foddy and Clayton 2004) when you see an Olympic champion saying such bad thing about a sport it helps you realize the severity of drug taking in sport. This affects him even though to the society who thinks it was best time of his life, but in reality he does not even want his children to experience this side of a professional sportsman society where drugs are common and not really thought about. When you look at society and who their role models are especially in England the people they look up to are the professional footballers. So the affect of any of these players taking drugs would affect the society as a whole and promote taking these performance-enhancing drugs. In survey conducted by Waddington, Malcolm, Roderick, et al (2004) of professional footballers in England, they found that there was at four premiership players using enhancing drugs. This has massive affect on society as if these people are thought to be gaining in success and in the money that they earn then it must have affect on society on how they react to this. Public see there top stars such as Gerrard, Rooney, or Henry taking drugs they will obviously think that this is how they can immolate there heroes. This shows how drugs in sport affect the society as a whole. The sociology side of drugs in sport is big in that it affects a lot of different society I not just one singular society. We look at athletes who get caught taking enhancing drugs and they are role models to all aspiring athletes or competitors and to no that they only achieved these heights through taking drugs only promotes the need for competitors to take drugs. A big example is in America baseball where Mark McGwire broke the record for most home run hits in baseball history for one season. Two weeks before McGwire broke this record he admitted to taking performance-enhancing drug but once he broke that record he was still treated like a hero and built up as a great of the game. But with this they also to a society of aspiring baseball players promoted taking this drug to become a player as good as McGwire was. The final aspect that you have to look at is what are the physiological affects when you are taking drugs. While a person is taking these performance-enhancing drugs there are physical affects that occur to the body. Strauss and Yesalis (1991) said that while a person is taking anabolic steroid that there is a growth in the size of a person while on these drugs. Though this is a plus of becoming bigger or being more successful at there sport there is also the downside of taking these drugs. Some of these problems are testicular atrophy, prostate enlargement, difficulty in urination secondary to changes in the prostate, (Daigle 1990) these are not shown to the buyer the problems that can occur from taking anabolic steroids, this is only one of many possible symptoms. When we look at all the different forms drugs caffeine also come up as a banned substance in terms off athletes. This drug has an affect on the muscles of the body and makes them go for longer it act upon the skeletal muscles. (Ganslen 1974) Drugs the different types of drugs which a person takes are vast they can range from drugs that are designed to produce muscle mass and make the performer bigger such as anabolic steroids, or drugs designed to make your red blood cell count become greater which are called EPO. EPO proper name Erythropoietin. EPO is a hormone produced by the kidneys that produces red blood cells within the body. By injecting themselves with extra EPO, athletes can not only improve oxygen absorption but also potentially increase the metabolism and healing process of muscles. (Bennett, 2003) This drug is helpful with professional coaching as it means that the person can train for longer. We can see simply from the two different drugs the radical changes that taking these performance-enhancing drugs can have on people. When you look at drugs in sport through each of these different aspects you can see a lot of how sever the problem is. Each aspect links in with each other to form different problems. Looking at the different whys that it harms a person it is not only a person body that it is affecting but also their mind. You also look at top professionals from all around the world; they are role models to children from their countries who wish to be like them. So when they decide to take these drugs it is there body they are damaging but also the body of there fans who think that it is acceptable to take drugs if there heroes are doing so as well. It is the responsibilities to get a message out that drugs a re bad and should never be used in enhance a competitors performance because there decision affects many more people.