INTRODUCTION
In his 2004 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush asked for help from team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to end the use of steroids and set better examples for young athletes in the country. The President stated:
To help children make right choices, they need good examples. Athletics play such an important role in our society, but, unfortunately, some in professional sports are not setting much of an example. The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message - that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now.
No president had ever included a statement regarding steroid usage in the State of the Union speech. The addition was made necessary due to the overwhelming use of anabolic steroids amongst athletes in the United States over the past three decades. As I will argue in this paper, the widespread use of steroids by athletes has and continues to be a serious problem, which unless checked, threatens both the health of athletes and the honesty and integrity of the sports in which they compete.
The threat to health posed by steroid use is well documented. As will be seen, steroid use causes both short term and long term health problems. Young people, in particular, who are heavily influenced by their sports’ heroes and, in many cases, swayed by dreams of playing professional sports, are at risk.
Despite legal and league prohibitions against their use, sports superstars have been required to testify in grand jury proceedings, high school athletic prodigies have been disqualified from competition, and eighth graders have been placed on weekly drug tests, due to steroid use. Private laboratories, such as the now infamous Balco Lab,[1] continue to develop so-called designer drugs, designed to avoid detection in drug testing. The number of athletes who use anabolic steroids increases every year, leading many to believe that the field of sports will never be the same.
In addition to the serious health risks, steroid use undermines fair competition in sports. Faith in the integrity of the event is an important issue in competition. Viewers and fellow competitors have to be able to trust those competing and that they are doing so in a fair and honest manner. Once that trust is diminished, the whole concept of fair competition collapses. Fair competition is what makes a sport. If there is an advantage, there is no point in competing because the outcome is tampered with.
Given that legal and league prohibitions have not been a sufficient deterrent to the use of steroids in athletics, and given the serious risks involved, a greater understanding of the dangers of steroids is necessary to convince athletes and the public that steroid use in athletics should be rejected. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the science behind steroids, discuss the ethical issues concerning their use in sports and to argue that, despite the various reasons for steroid use; the risks to athletes, their fans and the sports that they play support the conclusion that the use of steroids in athletics should be rejected.
A Short History of Steroids
Athletes have looked for an edge in competition dating back to ancient Greece, when athletes consumed huge quantities of meat to help build muscle. The Norse Berserkers were said to eat hallucinogenic mushrooms to ready themselves for battle. The first athletes documented to use drugs to enhance their physical performances in athletic competition were a group of swimmers in Amsterdam in the 1860s.[i]
The first actual steroids were synthetic forms of testosterone developed in the 1930s and were given to men who were unable to naturally produce enough testosterone for normal growth, development, and sexual functioning. The Nazis, also, developed various forms of steroids, testing their use on death camp inmates during World War II.
In the 1950’s, athletes began to use synthetic forms of testosterone in international competition. In the 1952 and ’56 Olympics, competitors representing the Soviet Union dominated the competition in wrestling and weight lifting through the use of steroids.[ii] Dr. John Zeigler, an American physician, created the first anabolic steroid in the mid 1960’s. From then on, steroids became very popular amongst athletes looking for a competitive edge. Steroid use became so prevalent in competition that in 1975[iii], the Olympics banned the use of steroids in the Olympic Games. However, steroids remained popular with athletes, including athletes competing in U.S. professional sports. In response, the United States government passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1988, which prohibited the manufacture and distribution of steroids that were not meant for medical use. Subsequently, in 1990, the U.S. government passed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act, making the possession of steroids without a prescription illegal. These laws still stand today; however, steroid use has continued to grow amongst athletes, including young athletes.[iv]
In the 1990s, the issue of steroids, once again, gained prominent national attention due to public disclosure of widespread steroid use in major league baseball. As recently as 2005, the United States Congress threatened further action to control the use of steroids in professional sports, forcing the professional sports leagues, principally major league baseball, to strengthen their policies and testing procedures for steroids an other drugs.
[1] The Balco Laboratory was raided by various US government agencies in 2003, leading to several indictments arising from the production and distribution of steroids. The scandal gained national attention due to Balco’s client list, which included Baseball’s Barry Bonds, world sprinter Kelli White, Olympic champion Marion Jones and world record holder in the 100 meters, Tim Montgomery.
[i]"Anabolic Steroids." NIDA Research Report Sites. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 28 Dec. 2006 <
[ii]"Anabolic Steroids." Steroid.Com. 2002. 1 Jan. 2007 <
[iii] "Anabolic Steroids." CESAR. 2 May 2005. University of Maryland. 1 Jan. 2007 <
[iv] same as iii