Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports: A Position Statement

This position statement discusses the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports, the factors that encourage doping, the concerning reasons for doping, and the adverse effects of PED on athletes' health and public relations. It highlights the pressure of competition, parental and coach influence, and the desire for money and status in sports as factors that encourage doping. It also discusses the adverse effects of PED on athletes' health and the negative impact on public relations. The thesis statement of the paper is that performance enhancing drugs should be banned from society.

Running head: POSITION STATEMENT
Position Statement
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1POSITION STATEMENT
Introduction:
It is common knowledge that players use performance-enhancing drugs or PED to
improve their performance before a particular sport. These substances are generally deemed
illegal as it provides unjustified advantage to the person using it (Bahrke 2012). This practice
dates back to ancient Greece, when the athletes participating in Olympics, ate sheep testicles and
heart which were high in testosterone content (Gleaves & Llewellyn, 2014). However, in the
1920s this practice was recognised internally and was declared illegal. An organization called the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was founded which aimed to control
the drug use in sports (Tscholl, 2010). The commonly preferred substances are either variants of
stimulants or anabolic steroids. The stimulants enhance the heart rate of the athlete and make
them less susceptible to fatigue. The anabolic steroids make the athlete to build muscle-mass
faster and gain the ideal weight according to the requirement. Other variants are cannabinoids,
which are essentially narcotic analgesics, peptide hormones, glucocorticoids and beta-
blockers (Reardon & Creado, 2014). Each of these substances have a different role in the body
physiology. Some of the substances reduce fatigue and the sensitivity towards pain and injuries.
Hormone stimulating substances can induce growth factors, intensify the red blood cell count,
and enhance oxygen absorption to reduce hypoxia. Certain anti-inflammatory drugs also reduce
pain sensitivity, by numbing the sensation of prostaglandins.
The Thesis statement of the paper being: Performance enhancing drugs should be banned from
the society.

2POSITION STATEMENT
Discussion:
Factors that encourage Doping:
Parents and coaches:
Parents have a huge impact in shaping the need and habit of an individual. Parental control is the
locus of control in a child’s life and by extension a junior athlete’s life (Keijsers et al., 2010).
Research has shown that the influence of parents and coaches of athletes influence the use of
PED from a young age and that affects their career later. It is a competition nowadays to keep up
the performance of a kid, be it in academics or sports or any other form of extracurricular
activities (O’Rourke et al., 2011). It is considered socially unacceptable if a child or adult athlete
fails to perform or even provide average performance. In many countries athletes receive sports
scholarships, which open doors for them to receive high quality education in elite colleges. This
also impacts the thought process of parents who might want their children to receive best
education and make a successful career out of it. According to a study Madigan in 2015, parental
pressure often times makes junior athletes succumb to PED and maintain their success (Madigan
Stoeber & Passfield, 2016). Parents should not be practicing moral disengagement, which might
affect the mental health of the child and they start to feel pressurized and demoralized at their
failures. Athlete coaches oftentimes face the pressure as the athlete’s they train to improve the
performance and maintain the success rate of the organization they represent. Oftentimes
stakeholders invest a lot of money in international sporting events for which it is stressful for
both the athletes and their coach to train and to receive victory. This puts the position of the
coach in jeopardy as well as their image which is unacceptable to them. Nowadays sport has
become a form of business where the players are paid huge amounts of money for winning
international or national competitive games (Tsiotsou, 2011). Staring from Olympics, to Football

3POSITION STATEMENT
or even basketball there have been many recorded incidents where the athletes have been caught
and disqualified for using PED. Athletes and their coach feel threatened at the thought of losing
their country’s faith when it comes to international sporting events.
Money and Status in Sports:
Ever since the inception of sporting events, from ancient Greece, athletes have held a high
distinction in the social class (Gleaves & Llewellyn, 2014). Sporting events and their victories
made the spectators believe in the athlete’s performance and enjoy the entertainment it comes
with it. This provides athletes with recognition in the common mass, which is desirable to many
as it provided certain advantages and special services that others do not receive (Hardman Jones
& Jones, 2010). In the modern era, social status is directly proportional with popularity and
economic state of an individual. This is the reason many sports organization run a full forced
business both nationally and internally. Sporting events like Olympics, international football,
basketball as well as baseball have a lot of economy and recognition in stake, for which athletes
feel the need to rely on PED to live up to their expectations. Huge amount of investment is made
in terms of money in these events with stakeholders, organizers, judging panels, government of
various countries as well as commercial brands that want to be associated with the event
(Tsiotsou, 2011). Athletes perform to the best of their abilities and work hard to win these
competitive sporting events as well as aspire to receive the massive population, money and
secure their future by having a successful career. The competition is so high and is growing each
year as young athletes compete each year starting from schools and colleges and enter the
international scene (Calmeiro, Tenenbaum & Eccles, 2014). Therefore, established athletes have
to maintain their success records for which they take PED to improve their performance. This is
mostly observed in cases of older athletes who face physical disability sometimes and are unable

4POSITION STATEMENT
to perform for prolonged period (Huybers & Mazanov, 2012). These athletes succumb to these
PED habits and face legal actions and loss of the recognition. Sports can also be a way to
establish power of physical strength in front of the public and grant respect from them. In
addition, these sporting events in the junior level provide scholarships in many countries for
aspiring athletes to get into elite colleges and get high quality education and secure a bright
future. Junior athletes are oftentimes dependant of PED for this reason, which should not be
encouraged.
Concerning Reasons for Doping in sports:
Doping Undermines the Integrity of the sport
Sporting events generally associated with social respect and value for the athletes along with
recognition and economic stability. Spectators enjoy sporting events and come for entertainment
and pleasure in millions. The victors of such sporting events happen to put in a lot of effort and
hard work to win such competitive events. In addition, athletic talent is related to genetic
construct of an individual to some extent. This is why not all athletes are successful, and perform
extensively well and others have mediocre to below average performance (Eynon et al., 2013).
The pressure of performance makes the athlete succumb to PED and enhance their performance,
which is unethical as they are not naturally winning but relying on externally modifiers to
achieve success (Hardman Jones & Jones, 2010). This undue advantage cannot be accepted, as
the other athletes who work hard will not be appreciated when they cannot supersede the drug
users. The prospect of doping in sports is synonymous with cheating, as the athletes are
undertaking unauthenticated and illegal methods to achieve success. This is the reason why such
practices are considered punishable offence in many countries.

5POSITION STATEMENT
Threats on Athlete’s Health for using PED
Many athletes are reliant on PED to improve their performance, but not many of them know or
understand the health risks associated with it. The different categories of PED have different
effects on the physiology of the athlete’s body (Nikolopoulos, Spiliopoulou & Theocharis,
2011). According to the official website of the USADA, the long-term effects of anabolic
steroids are acne, baldness, stunted growth in adolescent athletes as well as increased physical
aggression, sexual appetite. Female athletes, who take testosterone as PED, have increased
baritone in voice, abnormal hair overgrowth, cessation of breast development and abnormal
menstrual cycle (Nieschlag & Vorona, 2015). Peptide hormones and growth hormones induce
hypertension, cancer, anaemic condition, strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolism, imbalance
of thyroid hormones et cetra. Beta-blockers induce headaches, nausea, perspiration, muscle
cramps et cetra. Diuretic drugs induce dehydration, muscle cramps, light-headedness, and sudden
blood pressure drop and loss motor response. Performance stimulants induce insomnia, anxiety,
weight loss, addiction, tremors and increases susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases.
Cannabinoids are known to induce heart rate, short term memory loss, slow reflex and motor
skill, reduced concentration abilities, distorts the sense of time and space and presence as well as
induces respiratory diseases. Also mood swings, impairs thinking and understanding.
Glucocorticoids are known to reduce muscle mass which can have long-term defect as breakage
of bones and tendons and ligament. Blood doping also has bad side effects as it puts pressure on
the athlete’s cardiac system for pumping more blood suddenly. This process can enhance sudden
blood clotting leading to pulmonary embolism, strokes (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, 2018).

6POSITION STATEMENT
Adverse Public Relation
The public success and recognition of athletes comes with a lot of responsibilities. As mentioned
earlier that the athletes are constantly at pressure to maintain a public image along with their
performance. Once an athlete is caught doping before sports, he/she not only has to suffer
through the humiliation which comes along with it, answer to stakeholders as well as the
government but also make public statements in front of international media which further ruins
their reputation (Tsiotsou, 2011). The fear of loss in addition of loss of fame, recognition and
success makes these athletes develop a hyperactive defence mechanism to protect themselves
from public. It is not uncommon that a certain athlete who has been caught for doping will show
aggressive behaviour towards the media. This is a major problem for the public relations
company that represents the athlete as their reputation is also at stake and those results a scandal
(Boyle & Haynes, 2014).
Some Examples Concerning Doping:
Festina Scandal
In the 1998 Tour de France, a series of athletes representing the Festina team were caught using
erythropoietin for the cycling events just minutes before the start of the game in their team car.
This gave rise to a team of investigators for the suspicion of a vast network for doping.
Resposnig officers stopped the car of soigneur Willy Voet and found hundreds of grams of
anabolic steroids, erythropeotin syringes and other PED. As a result Voet was arrested but the
sports director denied the allegations. Former players as well as current associates were all
questioned in addition searching of the hotels and staff members’ room. This led to the
withdrawal of other teams from the event. The investigation went on till 2000 when the riders

7POSITION STATEMENT
confessed of using erythropoietin which led to their suspension from participation (Lentillon‐
Kaestner, Hagger & Hardcastle, 2012).
Puerto Scandal
Operación Puerto (Operation Mountain Pass) is the code name of a Spanish Police task against
the doping system of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, began in May 2006, which brought about an
outrage that included a few of the world's most well known cyclists at the time. Media
consideration has concentrated on the modest number of expert street cyclists named, just the
same, sportspeople from different orders including football and tennis have likewise been
associated with the outrage (Lentillon‐Kaestner, Hagger & Hardcastle, 2012). Fifteen had been
absolved by May 2007, while three had conceded doping or proof of blood doping was found.
On 23 May 2006, Spanish Guardia Civil captured the directeur sportif of the Liberty Seguros–
Würth group, Manolo Saiz, and four others including Fuentes, blamed for doping rehearses with
riders. Spanish police attacked living arrangements. In one, having a place with Fuentes, they
found a thousand measurements of anabolic steroids, 100 parcels of blood items, and machines
to control and transfuse them. The Guardia Civil found a rundown naming different cyclist
involved with the doping. Freedom Seguros pulled back their sponsorship, which left Würth as
the only sponsor.
Conclusion:
Sports are form of entertainment that dates back to ancient Greece and come with immense fame,
success and recognition for the victors. This victory does not come easily as athletes have to
display the best of their physical and mental strength to win against other contenders. This leads
to pressure of competition which makes athletes succumb to PED based techniques to maintain a

8POSITION STATEMENT
certain image. Aspiring athletes from a young age a trained by coaches and influenced by the
expectation of their parents. They feel pressurised for not being able to meet up to the high
standards of expectations which lead to depression. To avoid such situations this kind PED based
techniques are supported both by parents and coaches in junior level sports. The scholarship
programs of elite colleges for sporting athletes make it even more desirable for parents to push
their children into the competition in lieu of high quality of education. This kind of behaviour
cannot be encouraged and parents need to be made aware of the adverse effects of PED in
children. The scenario in case of senior athletes is a little different; they are threatened by the
competition provided by the young competitors as they start to age and lose their physical
strength. As a result they succumb to doping to maintain a certain public image and continue
living a life of luxury. The genetic construct of every individual is different which is why, some
athletes perform exceptionally well while others fall a little behind. But due to competition and
discovery of drugs by medical science, athletes can alter their physiology and supersede others,
which is unfair and unethical. Additionally, if an athlete is caught the media attention and
investigative procedure can lead to suspension or even termination of their career. So it is
advisable not to engage in doping in sports and rely on the natural talent rather than
pharmaceuticals.

9POSITION STATEMENT
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10POSITION STATEMENT
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