Allowing PEDs Would Ruin the Meaning of Sports
As long as professional sports have been popular across the world, so have Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). Used to give athletes a competitive edge over their opponents, common PEDs used today are anabolic steroids, human growth hormone (HGH), and Erythropoietin (EPO). These drugs, among others, are used to help athletes become faster, stronger and have more endurance when they compete.
In today’s era, with high profile athletes such as Alex Rodriguez, Michael Phelps and Lance Armstrong being caught with PEDs the argument has been raised that perhaps the time has come to allow them in sports. Rather than keeping them illegal, they should be allowed and then the competitive field will be “balanced” by having enhancements available to all athletes.
Lance Armstrong, one of the biggest names in cycling, was accused of using PEDs in 2013.
If PEDs are allowed in professional sports today it would mean the end of true meaning of the word “sport.” Professional sports are meant to be a showcase for the best athletes in the world to represent the hard work they have put in to train their bodies and tune their minds. By allowing PEDs, someone could create a shortcut that changes the nature of sport from being who is willing to put the most work into instead being which athlete can afford the best drugs to help their performance.
This would also affect the viewership of these events. Professional sports would turn more into a showcase of which supplement or drug works best on athletes. It could, in essence, transform professional sports from a competition shown on TV into a sort or part supplement advertisement/part reality show on the effects of drugs. That isn’t what major networks are paying for when they sign contracts with the NFL or the MLB. People want to watch athletes make the plays, not drugs.
Baseball is perceived as the sport with the most PED users.
Opponents advocating for the inclusion of PEDs say that since most athletes already do the drugs illegally, allowing them would actually level the playing field. This is a classic case of bandwagon syndrome. Just because some athletes do something does not make the act permissible. Additionally, there have only been 55 suspensions in the MLB since 2006 related to PEDs, so the accusation that “everyone is doing it” does not apply.
It is the duty of the leadership of professional sports organizations to ensure that the integrity of the game stays. Fans of professional sports pay to watch athletes showcase their hard work, not the hard work of la technicians working on the latest drug. If that were to come to an end, then what is the point of sports anyways.
