“It is better to deserve honors and not have them, than to have them and not to deserve them.”
– Mark Twain
The sporting world is constantly reporting on athletes from various sports using drugs as a means to get an upper hand on their opponents. There have been recent cases in the 2012 Olympics.
There was even an incident when NASCAR vehicles were guilty of using illegal fuels. I believe they consider this cheating too. Kind of like a cowboy having an ace up his sleeve to win big at the saloon. It is frowned upon and often met with an untimely death.
Sadly, and too often, so are the athletes who feel they need to use steroids to be competitive and succeed. Athletes’ drive for winning is at all costs. They want to be the best for themselves, for financial reasons and the fame. But there can be a price much greater than being on a cereal box.
This viscous trend is now involving younger athletes, both boys and girls, using steroids during the delicate developmental years of their youth. Estimates believe five – 12% of boys are using steroids, which equals many thousands of them in our country. Girls were found to use steroids much less than boys.
Professional athletes aren’t the only influence to our kids. Hollywood stars and musical performers are also resorting to improving their body through unnatural means. When someone has a change in their body and it happens too quickly, it should raise a red flag.
Current news coverage reports how baseball is riddled with steroid use, but they are not alone. Any sport is susceptible to athletes looking for an edge. The worlds of martial arts, boxing, football, track and field, cycling, pro wrestling and bodybuilding also have problems.
One of the problems with baseball is everyone was using them, or at least many of the stars. It was like bringing a knife to a gun fight. You were at a disadvantage so to stay competitive or become better, you too joined the masses.
One argument is that steroids don’t affect a baseball player’s ability to hit a ball. I
