Features > Steroids in Sports

The history of steroids in sports is long and checkered. The graphic below shows the many steroids in professional sports scandals. Read on to learn more and then be sure to stay away from steroids (check out all of these steroids side effects) and just work hard at weight training to meet your fitness goals!

Steroids in Sports

Steroid usage is the ultimate in un-sportsmanlike behavior. It is cheating in its most blatant form. There is no excuse for steroid use in professional sports. Sporting events are supposed to be "fair" competitions between athletes on a level playing field. Using steroids robs any sport of its objectivity by giving some players an edge in speed, strength, stamina, recovery, or all of the above.

The joke is on these cheaters, though, as the long-term health effects of steroid use are well documented and extremely dangerous (click here to see all of steroids side effects). The harm that they do, immediately and in the long run, far outweigh any benefits that they could offer.

Still, many athletes throughout the history of civilized sporting events have turned to steroids for an illegal edge over their enemies. Steroids in baseball, steroids in football, even steroids in the Olympics! There are all kinds of scandals involving steroids in professional sports.

The Grand Timeline of Steroid Usage

Steroid usage is older than you might think, given all the recent scrutiny it has received in the media and from the US government. As far back as 776 BC Olympic athletes in ancient Greece would ingest sheep testicles (no word if it was raw or cooked). They knew that the testes were a source of testosterone production. No word if this particular food item induced a measurable increase in testosterone or not, but about 2700 years later the Soviet Olympic team is injected with testosterone by their doctor. This marks the first time in the modern era that anabolic steroids are used to improve athletic performance.

Fourteen years later science and sportsmanship had made apparently no strides forward. In 1968, East Germany's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Manfred Hoppner hands down a recommendation that all East German athletes begin a regimen of steroid usage. Two years later Arnold Schwarzenegger is rewarded for cheating: he wins his first seven Mr. Olympia titles (that's a bodybuilding competition, in case you didn't know) thanks to his use of Dianabol. Seventeen years later a voice of reason comes from the NFL of all places, when they outlaw steroids in 1987.

This doesn't stop this nation's youth, however, as a year later in a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that almost 7% of male high school athletes used steroids. Three years later Congress takes decisive action (which is incredibly rare for Congress). In 1991 they place steroids into what's called "Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act." This makes possession of steroids without a prescription illegal.

1999 sees the creation of the "World Anti-Doping Agency" (WADA). Their motto is "play true." Five years later WADA announces that several professional baseball players have tested positive for THG. Major League Baseball places this drug on their testing list. In 2007, "professional wrestler" Chris Benoit tragically murders his wife and young son, then hangs himself. Tests show that he has highly elevated levels of testosterone in his body to a magnitude of ten times! Steroid abuse can wreak major havoc with mood, emotions, and self-control.

2008 is another bad year for athletes and steroids. The International Olympic Committee hands down a ruling regarding Marion Jones. Based on her admission of steroid use, her teammates must all return the medals that they won with her as part of relay races. The next year US cyclist Tyler Hamilton destroys his career with the steroid DHEA. After testing positive for the drug in 2009 he "retires" in disgrace. Two years later in 2011, Manny Ramirez does almost the same thing, quitting major league baseball after failing another drug test. The image on the graphic shows Ramirez in a pose that seems to say "Eh, whaddya gonna do?"

Steroids in High School Sports

Steroids are unsafe for almost every human being. Only in very specific cases do doctors ever prescribe them to patients whose systems are so weak that they need to be artificially enhanced. Even in these cases, doctors will usually use the lowest therapeutic dosage and only prescribe them for as long as is necessary to correct and improve the situation. In some cases, they may even prescribe steroids to young children who are failing to develop properly for some reason.

However, steroids are EXTREMELY dangerous for teenagers. Their bodies are constantly in flux, releasing hormones and other biochemicals designed to induce a very specific series of changes that help young humans grow into adult humans. Mental, emotional, and physical changes are constantly taking place and interfering in these systems with artificial chemicals with mind-altering effects is a recipe for disaster. As we already mentioned, in 1988, almost 7% of high school male athletes admitted to taking steroids.

Currently 11% of high school males said that they at least "tried" steroids. 44% said that is was "very" or "fairly" easy to obtain said steroids. 85% of all teen athletes are reportedly not educated on the effects of steroids. This fact is shameful enough, but what's worse is that 40% of teen steroid users said that they were influenced to do it themselves because the pros were doing it. That doesn't make it right, but if makes the fact that big name athletes and celebrities are doing it even worse. Muscle magazines (which are usually filled with junk information and ads for products that don't really work) also played a role. 57% of teen users said that muscle mags helped drive them to take steroids.

Wanna Buy Steroids? DON'T!

If you are thinking of trying to buy steroids then think again! The side effects of steroids just simply aren't worth it. You don't need steroids to meet your fitness goals. Choose a workout plan and get started working hard to accomplish your fitness goals!