Do you think it is acceptable to cheat on a school exam, provided that everyone does it? This is how most athletes explain why they do drugs. Doping in sport essentially involves using illegal drugs or illegal quantities of legal drugs to enhance an athlete's performance. Two sports heavily affected by doping are football and cycling. In football, some players use steroids to get bigger and stronger, but in cycling, athletes use performance-enhancing drugs called anabolic steroids. These performance-enhancing drugs, unlike normal steroids, are only effective for a short time because they increase the production of red blood cells. This allows the athletes' muscles to work more efficiently because they now have more oxygen. The effect then wears off within a few hours and athletes return to their normal red blood cell count. This is how many cyclists improve their performance and break old records in every race. However, these performance-enhancing drugs are currently illegal, but the idea of ​​legalizing them is becoming increasingly popular due to the increasing number of athletes being exploited for their use. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Many athletes say they drug because everyone else does it and they have to do it if they want to continue competing. However, if doping could be put an end to all, then everyone would have an equal chance to be the best and the winner would be the one who worked the hardest instead of the one who found the best drug to use. In Kathy L. Hahn's book, Are Athletes Good Role Models? Chuck Klosterman says performance-enhancing drugs have been around for a long time and even they are used more and more extensively because people today are hungry for more exciting and competitive sports. Klosterman's theory is true and that as long as records continue to be broken, fans will be happy. Klosterman goes on to say that athletes continue to dope because it increases their income and popularity (166). In some cases, athletes break a record and five or six years later are found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs. This causes them to lose their entire fan base and become hated by the public. This proves that even if records are no longer broken, fans will still encourage athletes to strive for those records. If doping is completely eradicated, fans will be even happier knowing that these athletes are accomplishing seemingly impossible tasks by training for long hours instead of using performance-enhancing drugs. For example, Lance Armstrong became much more popular after coming back from testicular cancer and winning the Tour de France. However, after it was discovered that he had been doping all this time, his fan base went from being very high to disliking him more than the people who liked him. Today's public knows that athletes use steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, but that's just the people who enjoy it. getting caught that they don't like. These are also usually the athletes who set incredible records, like Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds. These seemingly supernatural athletes are also usually captured after they have retired or are no longer in their prime.This happens because when athletes begin to be investigated, they bribe doctors to keep it a secret until they win and earn all their money. For example, Barry Bonds ended his career the season he hit his final home run to break Hank Aaron's record. Besides the fact that he was getting older, his case of steroid use became public and a few years later he was convicted of steroid use. When you're a professional athlete, your sport is your job and therefore when athletes drug themselves to perform better, it's a bit like indirectly stealing money from other athletes. Will Routley, a Canadian cyclist, wrote in his article "Dopers are not victims", in Canada they use a system called "carding" to decide who can go to the Olympics and who gets money for representing Canada at the Olympic Games. In the past, Canada has dealt cards to runners who dope, meaning that a runner who does not dope could be stripped of the opportunity to win money for the race (1). This means that doping to get a card is indirectly theft. Routley goes on to say, "I have yet to get a check in the mail from a druggie with a letter saying 'sorry Will, here's the money I stole from you.' “If using drugs to win is like stealing money, then it should be. Won't these athletes be accused of theft? It seems only logical that athletes who do drugs would go to prison if they are arrested during or after their career. Today, athletes who are subsequently caught are simply forced to return their medals and, in some cases, pay a fine. This makes the athletes who competed against these drug users very angry because they are the ones who could have gotten all the fame, fortune and publicity. Former Olympian Kate Schmidt writes in her article “Steroids: Take One for the Team”: “There would be a lot fewer home runs; smaller, slower, less muscular athletes and no new records for the next few decades until human development and equipment technology compensates for the lack of these drugs. There would also be fewer fans, reduced ticket sales, less advertising revenue, less lucrative television contracts and smaller stadiums built. The beneficiaries of the use of performance-enhancing drugs exist at all levels of the sports industry. She believes that without steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, sales would be lower because the sport would be less interesting. However, even though athletes are smaller without drugs, all athletes are smaller, which levels the playing field. For example, in baseball, Schmidt argues that "there would be a lot fewer home runs," whereas in reality, there would probably be the same number of home runs, because the pitches would also be slower and easier to hit. Additionally, athletes might be smaller and slower, but they wouldn't appear that way because each athlete would be smaller and slower. This would make all athletes look the same in competition, only different in person. Doping in sport is also very dangerous as there is little information on the effects of these drugs. In the article “Doping Is More Than Cheating,” Richard T. Bosshardt writes: “Doping includes drugs such as anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and erythropoietin “EPO.” The latter stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. There is much more wrong with doping than just.