Anabolic Steroid Use by Athletes Essays -- Steroid Use Among Athletes

  Ã‚   In the 1988 Summer Olympics, an unbelievable feat occurred. The feat happened during one of the premiere events, the 100 meter dash. The event was set up to be a great race between Carl Lewis of the United States and Ben Johnson of Canada. This did not happen. Ben Johnson blew away the field running a 9.79, a world record. Carl Lewis finished a distant second with a 9.88 ("Ben Johnson"). That is not the end of the story. Later on, the runners had to take a urinalysis. All of the runners passed but one, Ben Johnson. He tested positive for anabolic steroid use. It was later discovered that he'd been using steroids for several years. He was striped of his gold medal and his world record. Carl Lewis was given the gold and the world record ("Ben Johnson"). In the many years since this incident, no one has come close to Ben Johnson's time. The next fastest that has ever been ran was a 9.84 by fellow Canadian Donovan Bailey in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Steroids definitely enabled Ben Johnson to reach a new level that others haven't. Steroids are used as much in sports now as they have ever been in the past, even with stricter testing and knowledge of the harmful side effects. Olympians are especially prone to use these drugs because of the great pressure put on these athletes, but it is becoming wide spread through all sports. For the most part, the athletes get away with steroid use because of new technologies and using patterns which make the steroids undetectable to the tests. There are three main classifications of drugs in athletics. The first class is performance continuance drugs, which is the only accepted class in athletics. This class contains such drugs as aspirin, ibuprofen, and asthma inhalers. The se... ...com/enw/eae3a/babine3.htm. March 12, 1998. "BIG Sport." [on-line]. Available: http://www.bigsport.com/main.shtml. March 23, 1998 Elliot, Diane. "Intervention and Prevention of Steroid use in Adolescents." The American Journal of Sports Medicine 24 Nov-Dec 1996: 46. "NIDA Research Report Series." [On-line]. Available: http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResearchReports/Steroids/Anabolic.html. March 16, 1998. Nnakwe, Nweze. "Anabolic Steroids and Cardiovascular Risk in Athletes." Nutrition Today Sep-Oct 1996: 206. Prather, Irvine D. "Clenbuterol: substitute for anbolic steroids?" Medicine and Science in Sports 27 Aug. 1995: 1118. "The Steroid Bible." [On-line]. Available: http://www.anabolicsteroids.com. March 26, 1998. "The use of Anabolic/Androgenic Steroids by Athletes." [On-line]. Available: http://www.medstudents.br/sport/sport2.html. March 26 1998.