What is the point of cheating? You may do it i school for a test or even in a videogame, but what about the 1.5 trillion dollar industry of sports. Even the best players in any sports league will try to find the upper hand on their opponent. But what is the real reason they cheat,  and why is it a horrible decision?

To understand why an athlete would use a performance enhancing drug may seem obvious, to become a better more productive athlete. But what is a performance enhancing drug?  A performance enhancing drug can cause many long term health effects. Steroids which is the most common drug can cause cancer, strokes, stunted growth, and increased aggression. Also if the athlete takes steroids by an injection they are exposed to the risk of getting HIV (Scott, 2008). So why would anyone want to risk their career for some life threatening drug?

One man who inspired many people by surviving cancer and being arguably the best cyclist of our generation, Lance Armstrong was caught using a performance enhancing drug. He was stripped from his seven Tour De France titles. When the sports world heard about his drug usage, everyone let out a collective sigh, another athlete cheating. Lance claimed that these drug claims were taking a toll on him and his family, but if he really cared would he really be putting his family at risk?

Performance enhancing drug should stay banned from sports because it gives the user an unfair advantage and it can cause the user long-term health issues. So if an athlete cheats they should have whatever title they have “earned” be revoked. If the athletes who dope don’t get their their titles taken away, more athletes may be tempted to take the drug if there are little consequences. Some people say that if everyone was taking the drug the playing field would be even for everyone, but why have everyone put their health risks up if you don’t need to take the drug. Also some people say that if it can help athletes climb higher on the performance level (Smith, 2012) . Als stated by Forbes is that pitchers could throw harder, homeruns will go further, cyclists move faster, and sprinters will test the limits of human speed.  But wouldn’t an athlete who broke a record legit feel much better too. I mean it’s like if you cheat on a test and get a good grade on it, you did nothing to get yourself better you just faked it.

Finally the last reason performance enhancing drugs should be banned is because it can take a toll on us teenagers. According to (Alvarez, 2012) from 2009-2011 doping for sports in schools has climbed from 5%-11% for 9-12th graders.  In fact ? of boys and ? of girls have admitted to using creatine, a muscle building powder.  Us teenagers are using creatine powders and pills to gain the ideal athletic body and to perform better at sports. So if we start out in high school using muscle building substances what happens if you play sports in college, do you introduce yourself to harder drugs such as steroids to keep up with the competition. Performance enhancing drugs will attract many teenagers if they became legal because they would want to achieve their perfect body and perform better in their sports.

Why do you think when Lance Armstrong was found guilty of using performance enhancing drugs the sports world was in shock? It was because he was inspiring, winning seven Tour De France titles after surviving cancer. People look up to these great athletes and aspire to be just like them. Another great athlete Mark McGwire said that “Performance enhancing drugs are an illusion. I wish I had never gotten involved with steroids. It was wrong, it was stupid.” That means it is affecting our generation at an early age. If your favorite athlete did drugs you may think that since he is great at sports that it is okay and there are no consequences. It is easy to find an athlete that inspires you but when they mess up you may not want to believe it or  even follow their path because they are perfect right?

So why should we have performance enhancing drugs taken out of sports for good? Because it doesn't just effect the player, it can also affect us.