The Tour de France is considered one of the greatest cycling events to date. It also has one of the richest and most extensive histories in the cheating department, specifically doping. In the dictionary doping is “the unlawful use of drugs to enhance or inhibit the performance of an athlete”.  the Tour de France began back in 1924 when the Pelisser brothers said they used Cocaine, Asprin, Chloroform, Strychnine, and Horse Ointment to help them go on in the famous race. This sparked cases up to the most famous Lance Armstrong who was considered a great cyclist until this broke out and his legacy was ruined. This even though being considered one of the most famous is still only one of the many sports cases of doping and lots of diverse sports out there contract dopers all the time. A drug known as EPO has alone killed 20 people in just 4 years.  This is why I believe we need to do something about it because doping in sports is getting out of hand, so I will use my four points to describe why I believe this. First, the most common drugs used in doping moving on to the side effects of doping, different doping cases, and lastly ways to stop doping.

To start, what are the most commonly used drugs in doping cases, and what drugs give the most boost above the competition? The points and facts are according to “What is a performance-enhancing Drug? Here are 10 examples.” by William Harris and two others on the site Howstuffworks. The main and most famous used are Anabolic Steroids. They are highly known for instances such as Lance Armstrong or Deigo Maradona. Basically what it does is it acts as your normal testosterone but with a boost, it can give smaller men freakish athletic ability it can increase stamina it can increase your agility it can do lots. It causes your heart to take more and gives your muscles and masses a push in growth making you a stronger individual and giving you a step over the competition. Another widespread one is Hgh or Human Growth Hormones. Our body can produce these hormones ourselves but it doesn’t mean some athletes don’t want more. The way this works is they grow the slim muscles out and reduce body fat it’s like taking your metabolism and bumping it up a few notches. It's very useful for those wanting an edge over the competition which is why it's so popular. These drugs may be good for the edge you gain but let's talk about the joint package of side effects that tag along.

First, side effects that will harm the inside of the body, stuff that isn’t seen. The facts and statements listed are acquired from “Doping in sports: Is it worth it?” by Yvette Brazier on Medical News Today. One side effect is cardiac arrhythmia, which is where your heart can beat at an irregular rate like at crazy speed slow or fast, or just sounds wonky like in an off pattern. Another thing involving the heart is a Heart Attack the most famous of side effects is when the blood flow to the heart becomes blocked or clogged up. This causes the heart not to pump blood to the other parts of the body and can cause organ failure, brain damage, and suffocation. Doping can also cause Hypertension, Diabetes, thyroid problems, and many other kinds of in-the-body injuries and diseases. Moving on to outside the body it is a little less extreme starting with breaking out in acne on the face, back, shoulders, and many more, this can cause less self-confidence at any age. Another common outside the body for doping is the shrinking of the testicles. Shrinking of the testicles can also come with erectile dysfunction and even Infertility. Now let's go over the different cases these drugs have affected 

I began with the Tour De France, a famous cycling race that has many cases but one has even more than The Olympics. In regards to “Doping at the Olympics: the Most Infamous Cases” by the Staff and AP at NBC New York. The Olympics began their cheating list in the summer games of 1904 when American marathon runner Tom Hicks was given some small bits of strychnine with brandy from his coach Charles Lucas. This one act marked the beginning of a long extensive list of athletes who cheated during the world's athletic showdown. Let's go over some of the most famous cases in the Olympics. Starting with the Russian scandal, and how Russia has the most athletes caught doping in the games with over 150 and lost 48 Olympic medals both the most in the history of the Olympics. Some athletes caught in the Russian debate were Nadezhda Sergeeva in 2018 a Russian bobsledder and Russian Figure skater Kamelia Valieva. Russian athletes aren’t the only ones with Sun Yang, a Chinese swimmer dipping her toes in doping with the use of trimetazidine. Lastly, the most common that are seen online are weightlifters, competitive or not using steroids and it's a real problem. Lots of content related to weightlifting promotes this, so here are a few ways to stop the use of these drugs.

To begin this I want to say that it is not like athletes don’t get tested often they do, but the amount of effort, money, and time that goes into urine testing, blood tests, and watching to make sure no cheating and switching the urine occurs. This is why I think we need to find a better way to support these measures and put more urine testing and stuff like that in place. Because the sports we watch nowadays are slowly becoming who can get their hands on the most amount of steroids and it's killing them. I propose that we do a test before every season and then every three or so weeks this will allow them to know if they’re cheating during the season. I also think the test should be confidential information kept from the ears of the public and athletes until they take it. This allows no time in the middle for them to bring urine or go cold turkey they will have a better chance of getting caught. Next, the best way to stop the doping culture is for all the athletes that are doping that we know about like big-time stars to shut them down. This will cause those who see them daily will resent doping culture and become an athlete the right way with hard work and will. 

In conclusion, I talked about why doping is getting out of hand by going over the most commonly used drugs in doping such as anabolic steroids or human growth hormones, the most common side effects of doping that happen on the inside and outside of the body, different doping cases in the Olympics and others, and lastly, ways we can stop it using drug tests and stopping higher known celebrities. Hopefully, this gave you the sight to do something about this like sign a petition or even just write about it yourself. We began talking about the Tour de France and how it's common for bikers like Lance Armstrong to dope as well as lead you on a journey through the mud and weeds of doping in sports. I hope this will empower young boys and girls to go through the path of sports the right way by using their talents and hard work to lead a path to greatness.