Recently, tennis star Maria Sharapova announced that she had been using steroids during her matches in the form of a medication called mildronate, also known as meldonium. The declaration came after she failed a drug test required for the Australian Open. She claims that she was unaware that the drug was illegal (it was only added to the list of banned substances in January) and has been taking it for a decade for reasons unrelated to improving her athletic performance. The public is split. Some believe that it was an honest mistake, while others think that she is covering up efforts to cheat. The divide reveals the shadowy nature of the ethics of doping.
Ironically, Serena Williams (right) was accused of doping by angry fans after she beat Sharapova (left) during the Australian Open quarter finals.
The majority of performance-enhancing drugs are not strictly illegal, they are only against the rules when used for a competition. It's similar to how alcohol is not illegal, but you can get in trouble for being excessively drunk in public.
Those who agree with the strict rules that ban the use of these substances during competition like to talk about how they undermine the integrity of athletic competitions. The World Anti-Doping Agency refers to this as "violating the spirit of the sport."
However, when examined closely, it becomes clear that there is no distinction between spirit-violating tools and those that keep the spirit totally intact. The earliest marathon, for example, was likely run barefoot by a Greek messenger named Pheidippides. At most, he perhaps wore sandals. Are modern day runners tarnishing his name by wearing tennis shoes? These shoes are unnatural and synthetic. Plus, they inarguably enhance a runner's performance. If you compare the times of people who run with high-tech athletic gear and those who compete without it, you will surely see a substantial difference in time. Yet, no one complains that Usain Bolt cheated during the 100 meter because he ran while wearing expensive sneakers, on a bouncy rubber track, and using blocks specially designed help him start as fast as possible. Had he used a different synthetic and unnatural substance though, like meldonium, he would have been stripped of his Olympic medal or disqualified before he even got a chance to compete.
Jesse Owens never had shoes like these, a track like this, or starting blocks like this.
Another argument from anti-doping supporters stems from the belief that performance-enhancing drugs can cause lasting damage to users. Since steroids meddle with the human body's existing hormone production, the effects are often gender-specific: men who use anabolic steroids can develop breasts or see their genitals shrink and women can develop deeper voices and increased body hair. In addition, both genders are increasingly susceptible to heart attacks and liver cancer.
It's difficult to turn a blind eye towards the potentially harmful effects of something until you realize that this is practically what the institution of Athletics is built on. During the 2015 Women's World Cup, players posted pictures of huge bloody scrapes that they got from playing on artificial turf, a cheaper alternative to real grass. FIFA didn't seem to mind the injuries. American football has recently come under fire with heaps of evidence showing that players suffer from literal brain damage as a result of taking too many hits. Rather than addressing these accusations, the NFL has tried to sweep the evidence under the rug. So much for caring about the health of athletes. What no one wants to say is that at the level of a professional athlete, logic goes out the window. It becomes about pushing physical limits to the breaking point, which is why so many athletes reach that breaking point and suffer from horrific injuries at a young age. This is not healthy or good in any way, but it is absurd to pretend that it is untrue at the mention of steroid use.
FIFA seems to be really concerned about their players' health, don't they?
The more that the issue is examined, the more apparent that it becomes that we have banned steroids for ridiculous societal reasons. Tell someone that a substance contains chemicals and they will often remark on how unhealthy it is, ignoring that literally every existing item in the world is a chemical structure. This fear of chemicals seems to have leached into the athletics industry and we spend millions of dollars trying to block the use of performance-enhancing drugs to ensure that no one has an unfair advantage.
The easiest way to make sure that no one has an unfair advantage is to make steroids permissible and freely available for any professional athlete who would like them.
