Introduction
Sports are physical activity in an organized and guided environment. There are innumerable numbers of sports in our world. Some are so rare that they are only played by a handful of people and some are so popular than millions of people engage in it. Soccer is the most played and watched sport in the whole world. Events which are solemnly based on ones physical ability to perform a task like marathon running and other athletic events are also considered as sports. Board and card based games do not come under sports category. Most sports require physical strength and condition to perform at professional level. While lighter level of sports activity is also being used as exercise in school level. In recent years there has been lot of media attention on performance enhancing steroids usage in sports. After a number of top athletes testing positive of drugs, sports and drugs are becoming synonyms of each other in people’s minds. Historical texts prove that performance enhancing herbs, potions have been used on warriors and athletes in ancient times. While external supplementation like vitamin and mineral pills, protein shakes etc are allowed using drugs is banned.
History
The truth about Sports and drugs
All athletes and sportspersons train hard to improve performance in their particular sport. They concentrate on weight training, cardio training and other conditioning methods to boost their fitness. But some go to extent of using certain chemical substances that improve their performance in an artificial way and try to gain an unfair advantage in the competition. Such drugs have been identified and banned by sports authorities all over the worlds. Their aim is to remove the association between sportsanddrugs permanently from the minds of people and make sports events as fair as possible. Apart from giving the person using the drugs an unfair advantage many drugs used have been found to have serious side effects on the person’s health. The sportsanddrugs used in them vary drastically but most performance increasing drugs are found to tamper with cardiovascular system and nervous system. This in long term can damage the vital organs. Since more stress in put on these organs than they can handle.
Features
The negative effects of sports and drugs used in them have made testing compulsory in many organized sporting events. But again and again many athletes are found guilty of drug abuse. Many of the propagators of these drugs argue that since the person is willingly using the drug with the knowledge of the side effects it should not be banned as this is a step against personal freedom. But this is completely irrational. Think about if someone is ready to inject poison so they can win a competition, is their act justified of course not. This is the same case with sports and drugs used in them.
Tips and comments
We as a society have to strive forward and educate the youth about the ill effects of performance enhancing drugs. They must be taught to work hard and use their abilities instead of relying on some substance to boost them. We must also ensure that in the coming generations’ sports and drugs no longer are seen together.
