Steroids are known as the biggest way to cheat in a sport. So why do athletes take them? To get better of course. The standards for being able to play in the pros are ridiculous. Of course you can train up to be that good, but that will take too long and for many, too hard. That’s when steroids come into play.

Steroids are one of the most popular drugs used in sports. It may even be the number one  problem in sports. Steroids are also the biggest way to cheat, there have been countless lawsuits with players and steroids like Baseball players Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire who constantly denied that they used them. But it’s not just those guys. Famous Cyclist and Tour De France Champion Lance Armstrong, Tour De Champion Floyd Landis, Olympic Track Athlete Marion Jones, and Football Defensive End Lyle Alzado who later died from his steroid use. So has anything changed with steroids in sports?

It’s told all the time by officials that using steroids is cheating. But is it really when it could be the easiest way to win? After all, it’s been like that for decades. Steroids have been used not just in Pro American Sports like baseball and Football, but also in the Olympics. Steroids were first used in the 1930s during the Olympics. It started with the Russians using them to cheat there way to the top and make there main rival, the United States, look weak. Later on US Olympic teams started using them,  such as the weightlifting team, the Track team, and the Swimming team. The most popular story involving steroids or as said by the athletes and trainers “Performance enhancing drugs”, the German women’s swim team used steroids and was never caught until the Athletes on the team admitted it and one of the team members had an identity crisis where they felt more like a man, so she changed her sex. Later the team has lost their titles and medals and rules were made about steroid use. So whats the result of steroid use?  Losses like bragging rights, titles, and Fame.

So now nobody would take steroids because the cons weigh out the pros right? Maybe, Steroids are very easy to buy and athletes are always pressured in to buy them. Anti Doping Pioneer Don Catlin has worked with ESPN to see if College students are on the Juice. Turns out that athletic trainers and college sports staff don’t test their athletes for steroids. Colleges also tell their athletes weeks before the drug test and that system that they run is designed to not catch “dopers”. That seems good for the school because they don’t want to deal with any scandals, but if the athletes of that college are taking steroids and somehow they aren’t caught and are still using steroids, it’s cheating. So the only way to win would be to cheat.

Jason Scukanec is a co host of a sports radio talk show, he said “Over the course of my five years at BYU, I have concrete proof of thirteen to fifteen guys (using steroids), and I would suspect five others…And BYU is more temperate than most programs. Being around NFL and NFL Europe players, they would tell me stuff that blew my mind. I know other schools are worse. I would bet my house you could find at least five guys on every Division I team in the country (using steroids).” He never admitted to using steroids but he did help shoot up his teammates with steroids.

There are many side effects to steroids such as a feminine like breast enlargement (for men), smaller testicles, increased hair amount, and a smaller sperm count. Those may not seem like something one should completely care about, but the really bad side effects are things like having high blood pressure, high risks of  heart attacks, strokes, high cholesterol, and anger issues. Last few side effects are ways you can and will die from.

WHHS student athlete John Insignia is a wrestler and says if he got to play in college and was told that steroids are the only way to win he would respond with “I don’t want to use steroids mainly because that’s cheating.”

It’s too bad that not every athlete can have the same view on steroids. For the NFL Defensive End Lyle Alzado who lived till the age of  43, he should be seen as an example of why you shouldn’t do steroids to help just to think you’ll get ahead in sports. He even says himself that he’s sorry he lied and he regrets that he did steroids. So will there be stories of retired athletes who will end up like Alzado? Maybe not just football players but baseball players or track athletes, or even swimmers and many more. Less than a couple weeks ago On may 2nd of 2016 Miami Marlins player Dee Gordon was recently caught using steroids to enhance his abilities.

In the end, what really has changed? Olympic teams don’t have to say if their athletes are on steroids, so they win but they cheat. Colleges can give their athletes steroids so the school can get good revenue if the team is successful. Still cheating. If the team keeps their mouths shut and minds quiet about steroid use, everything will turn out peachy. So everyone ends up cheating just to win. In a documentary called “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” Canadian Olympic track athlete Ben Johnson is interviewed and says that everyone cheats and probably most of those winners you see are cheaters. I would highly suggest this documentary to anyone who has Netflix or is looking for something to watch that makes you think about a hot topic. But you should ask yourself this, is it still cheating if everyone’s doing it?