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Sports and Drugs
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Last Updated: • Article History
  1. Should performance-enhancing drugs be allowed in sports? Why or why not?
  2. Should performance-enhancing technologies be allowed in sports? Why or why not?
  3. How would you regulate performance-enhancing drugs and technologies if you were in charge of a sports organization? Explain your answers.

Take Action

  1. Consider Roomy Khan’s argument that the penalties for performance-enhancing drug use should be higher or the drugs should be allowed.
  2. Analyze a survey of drugs the Olympics bans at Encyclopædia Britannica.
  3. Explore the risks of performance-enhancing drugs at the Mayo Clinic.
  4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.
  5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing U.S. senators and representatives.

Sources

  1. Kristina Rutherford, “Olympics: Winning Isn’t Everything,” sportsnet.ca, Nov. 22, 2012
  2. Sally Jenkins, “Winning, Cheating Have Ancient Roots,” washingtonpost.com, Aug. 3, 2007
  3. Nick Busca, “Should Athletes Be Allowed to Enhance Their Genes?,” onezero.medium.com, Apr. 29, 2019
  4. Sam Moxon, “Gene Doping: The Next ‘Big Issue’ in World Athletics,” geneticliteracyproject.org, Mar. 23, 2021
  5. Michael LePage, “Anti-Doping Agency to Ban All Gene Editing in Sport from 2018,” newscientist.com, Oct. 9, 2017
  6. Alex Pearlman, “The Case for More Doping in the Olympics,” neo.life, Mar. 11, 2021
  7. Matt Glover, “The Case for PEDs, and a More Fair Sporting World,” themacweekly.com, Feb. 10, 2022
  8. Torbjörn Tännsjö, “Let Athletes Dope: A Moral Case,” bostonglobe.com, Sep. 10, 2015
  9. Garrett S. Bullock, et al., “Temporal Trends in Incidence of Time-Loss Injuries in Four Male Professional North American Sports over 13 Seasons,” Scientific Reports, nature.com, Apr. 15, 2021
  10. Erik Thorell, “Are Women Athletes More Susceptible to Injury?,” pennmedicine.org, May 19, 2015
  11. Alexander E. Weber, et al., “Anabolic Androgenic Steroids in Orthopaedic Surgery: Current Concepts and Clinical Applications,” Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Global Research and Reviews, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Jan. 6, 2022
  12. J. M. Beiner, et al., “The Effect of Anabolic Steroids and Corticosteroids on Healing of Muscle Contusion Injury,” American Journal of Sports Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Jan.-Feb. 1999
  13. Kylie Urban, “Some Olympic Doping Drugs May Have Legitimate Medical Uses,” michiganmedicine.org, Aug. 2, 2016
  14. Phillip Huynh, “Speeding Up the Injury Recovery Process,” clmr.unsw.edu.au, Oct. 4, 2023
  15. John William Devine, “The Enhanced Games: Letting Athletes Use Drugs Could Lead to Worse Problems than Cheating,” theconversation.com, July 11, 2023
  16. Maeve Juday, “To Dope, or Not to Dope?,” swarthmorephoenix.com, Feb. 15, 2018
  17. Julian Savulescu, Bennett Foddy, and M. Clayton, “Why We Should Allow Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sport,” British Journal of Sports Medicine, bjsm.bmj.com, Nov. 23, 2004
  18. Fabian Filipp, “Is Science Killing Sport? Gene Therapy and Its Possible Abuse in Doping,” EMBO Reports, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, May 2007
  19. World Anti-Doping Agency, “WADA Ethics Panel: Guiding Values in Sport and Anti-Doping,” wada-ama.org, Oct. 2017
  20. Christopher Matthews, “Doping Cheats Athletes of Glory — and Big Paydays,” axios.com, Sep. 20, 2017
  21. Bonnie Berkowitz and William Neff, “What Bodybuilders Do to Their Bodies — and Brains,” washingtonpost.com, Dec. 8, 2022
  22. Derek Hall, “Arnold Schwarzenegger Says Open Bodybuilding Is ‘Dangerous,’ Classic Physique Is the Future,” fitnessvolt.com, Sep. 28, 2021
  23. Kara Rogers, “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy,” britannica.com, Sep. 29, 2023
  24. Will Carroll, “Little-Known PED, Blamed in Player’s Death, Is Major Threat to Anti-Doping Fight,” bleacherreport.com, May 7, 2013
  25. Adam R. Nicholls, et al., “Children’s First Experience of Taking Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids Can Occur before Their 10th Birthday: A Systematic Review Identifying 9 Factors That Predicted Doping among Young People,” Frontiers in Psychology, frontiersin.org, June 20, 2017
  26. Sport Integrity Australia, “The Worrying Trend of Steroid Use in Young Adults,” sportintegrity.gov.au, May 26 2023
  27. Teddy Bridgewater, instagram.com, July 18, 2022
  28. Australian Academy of Science “Stimulants in Sport,” science.org.au (accessed on Apr. 19, 2021)
  29. Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), “2008 Anti-Doping Handbook,” ASADA website, 2008
  30. Nick Busca, “Should Athletes Be Allowed to Enhance Their Genes?,” onezero.medium.com, Apr. 29, 2019
  31. Daniel J. DeNoon, “Why Steroids Are Bad for You,” webmd.com, March 16, 2005
  32. William D. Knopp, “Ergogenic Drugs in Sports,” Clinics in Sports Medicine, July 1997
  33. Maryville University, “Understanding and Preventing Steroid Abuse in Sports,” online.maryville.edu, Apr. 14, 2021
  34. Mayo Clinic, “Performance-Enhancing Drugs: Know the Risks,” mayoclinic.org, Dec. 4, 2020
  35. David R. Mottram, Drugs in Sport, 2003
  36. Elizabeth Quinn, “Erythropoietin (EPO) and Blood Doping in Sports,” verywellfit.com, Mar. 26, 2020
  37. Jennifer Robinson “What Are Glucocorticoids?,” webmd.com, May 30, 2019
  38. U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), “Guide to Prohibited Substances and Prohibited Methods of Doping,” USADA website, Dec. 2007
  39. USADA, “Growth Hormone in Sport: What Athletes Should Know,” usada.org, Feb. 13, 2019
  40. WebMD, “Anabolic Steroids,” webmd.com (accessed Apr. 9, 2021)
  41. Wikipedia, “Doping at the Olympic Games,” wikipedia.org (accessed Dec. 15, 2021)