The use of steroids in sports is rumored to be rather widespread at all levels. While professional sport bodies test athletes regularly and publicize the effects, steroid abuse is rising in children too. Because anabolic steroids are illegal, use at this level falls beneath the radar. The outcome of steroids on sports may go deeper than we think.
Steroids, peculiarly testosterone, as a way to improve performance are not new to sport. As early as 776 bc, athletes’ tries to heighten their performance with testosterone were documented. Those athletes were competing, not for honor, but for prestige and cash – much like the athletes of today.
Anabolic steroids are believed to heighten performance, produce muscle more immediate, and speed up recovery from over-exertion. Because they are banned, few studies of the long-term effects of steroid abuse have been conducted. Known side effects of steroids, notwithstanding, include:
– for men: prominent breasts, baldness, shrunken testicles and infertility
– for women: deeper voice, increased body hair and baldness
– for both: acne, liver abnormalities, aggression, depression and cardiovascular problems
Taking anabolic steroids is a bit like playing russian roulette – you don’t know what result you’re going to end up with until it’s too late.
Why then would any individual take the peril? The pressure to compete and win in sport starts early. There are no parents on the bleachers at small league matches advancing their children to lose! This pressure increases in high school, where splendid performance may be a stepping stone to college and beyond that to professional ranks. Parents push their children to excel for those very reasons, as do school coaches and teachers which lead to steroid abuse. Peer pressure in terms of appearance comes into the mix as well. Whether it’s sports stars or rap singers, successful, wealthy, ‘cool’ individuals show off muscular physiques that young individuals yearn for. Regarding muscles, the more prominent the better. And the persuasion of most teenage boys is that muscles get the girls running too.
Once athletes reach professional level, that pressure is miniscule compared to what they’ll experience now. They answer to millions of fans ready to cast them out of favor for the slightest error on the sports field. The world wide web means that news travels, and discloses athletes to disgruntled fans via social media as well. Sponsors put pressure on person players and teams too. They don’t want their brand name on the loser’s jersey. Sponsorship is vital to a team or person, allowing them to exercise with the most skillful instrumentation, travel as they need to, and earn cash doing so. Sponsorship outside of sport may be exceedingly remunerative for athletes, but not anyone pay the loser to drink their brand of soda. Even the level of salaries in professional sport may contribute to the pressure to carry out. As ludicrous as it may sound to majority of us, most large earners are living up to the limit of their credit cards too – they may be capable to pay it off more immediate than us, but they are spending their net income precisely as rapidly as we are. Not only do they need to keep that level of income consistent, they likewise need to keep up appearances, and look like the successful stars they are, thence steroid abuse.
The pressure to excel is huge, and when natural methods are no longer working, athletes turn to steroids to keep them at the top of their game. Steroid abuse affects each other participant in professional sport. Splendid performance is no longer celebrated, it is questioned and without delay falls beneath suspicion. Athletes who systematically outperform their contenders are no longer lauded for their skill, genius or performance. The glory of winning is being tarnished by the activenesses of a number of athletes.
The very nature of sports and sportsmanship is reasonable play, and steroids in sports destroy the very concept of fairness. Athletes taking steroids impact the athletes they play with, whether on the same team or not. It is, in effect, cheating, giving users an unfair – and illegal – advantage over other contenders who are depending on hard work and loyalty to attain success. If caught, they’ll most certainly be suspended from playing the sport, if not banned straight-out. That affects the team they play in. It likewise has a huge impact on their families, as they are now efficaciously unemployed – and unemployable in any sport-related position.
It is ‘easier’ to take steroids and reach the top level of your sport in 6 months than to train naturally and possibly never get to the top spot. Taking steroids may be a symptom of the ‘convenience’ illness society suffers from. Everything is geared towards more immediate results with less effort required – even tv dinners! When you look at the fall from grace, the side effects of steroids, the shame and embarrassment, the betrayal of team mates and fellow contenders, and the lifelong stigma that a steroid abuser carries with him it would make most individuals turn their back. But the pressure to be the most skillful, and stay the most skillful, is one that few of us have to endure. Is it really worth it?
