Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports

“Performance-enhancing drugs are an illusion. I wish I had never gotten involved with steroids. It was wrong. It was stupid.”-Mark McGwire. Performance-enhancing drugs or PEDs are drugs athletes like Mark McGwire take to win or do better at a sport. There are many different kinds of PEDs, such as steroids, blood doping, etc. People shouldn’t use performance enhancing drugs for sports because it’s unfair, bad for the sports, and it’s a health risk.
First, PEDs are unfair for other athletes who don’t use them. Thus, the International Olympic Charter against Doping in Sport said, ¨... the use of doping agents in sport is both unhealthy and contrary to the ethics of sport ... it is necessary to protect the physical and spiritual health of athletes, …show more content…
Such as, some PEDs can kill you. Some people use PEDs just to win even if they know it will probably kill them in five years. (Not all PEDs are like this, but some are that people use even though they know the risks.) Another example, over 30 professional cyclist and runners who tried to use epo died in there sleep because of it (Douglas, 2014). Steroids are very hurtful as well. Steroids are a kind of PED that are used to gain strength and energy. Steroids have many effects to the body other than strength and energy though. They also do damage to the kidneys and liver. And it can kill you (Douglas, 2014). Also, gene doping is a newer way of enhancing performance in sports, but is still very dangerous. Gene doping is when genes or genetically modified cells are transferred into an athletes to enhance their performance. Some of the side effects are the immune system going haywire, overexpression of the desired genetic trait, and gene silencing. (turning off the gene you're trying to enhance) Athletes know PEDs are a huge health risk, but they use them because they want to win or be the best (Douglas, 2014). Even though PEDs are extremely dangerous people still think they should be

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