"The overwhelming majority of athletes I know would do anything, and take anything, short of killing themselves to improve athletic performance" (Donohoe, Johnson This statement is made by a once Olympic hammer-throw champion in 1973. It hardly portrays the importance that substance abuse has with regard to athletes and sports. If you are one of the many athletes in the United States, you have no doubt in your mind that this is an ongoing problem in the wide world of sports. If you live breathe, and bleed sports, than you know the importance of winning. You, in your mind, know that losing is not an option. You will not stand for it and for that, go to great lengths to be the best, even if chemicals and drugs are the answer. People have gotten banned from the spot, seriously hurt and even died due to drugs that they have used to enhance their performance. Although people may not realize it, there are many consequences to using performance enhancing drugs. "In some sports, it has been suggested that it may be impossible to 'get to the top' without the use of these illegal substances, but many think that they can come close without being affected by side effects and long-term effects on health, they are wrong. (Donohoe, Johnson 1). Performance enhancing drugs are not the answer and it is not worth loosing your life or career over a sport."Doping" is now a common term that people use to describe the use of a substance of the purpose of enhancing performance. (Donohoe, Johnson 2) "Doping has been defined as the administration to, or the use by, a competing athlete of any substance foreign to the body or of any physiological substance taken in abnormal quantity or by an abnormal route of entry in to the body, with the sole intention of increasing performance in an artificial and unfair manner." (Donohoe, Johnson 3). Using stimulants and other drugs to increase performance is not anything new. The ideas has been around for hu...
