I previously blogged about cheating in professional-level sports and how athletes, though they’ve given their pound of flesh to achieve the lengths they do, are still cheaters if they use illegal substances (read: steroids) to enhance their performances.
Poor Marion Jones. She was one of my two favorite female athletes from the track and field world (the late Florence Griffith Joyner, also another alleged “cheat”, was the other).
While I can’t help feeling bad for her, the fitness professional in me is glad that she was caught and will be punished (and that she was immediately stripped of her ill-gotten medals). Steroid use among children and adolescents is a growing problem, and a huge part of this is the perception that victory in sport is paramount and must be achieved by “any means necessary.” By showing the negative ramifications of cheating in sport, the allure of first place by any means necessary is tarnished. That sends a stronger message than any PSA on the “dangers” of performance enhancing drugs.
It’s not enough to educate youngsters about health risks. If you remember back to your own teen years, would the teenage you have stopped any behavior because adults and authority figures told you it was unhealthy?
If there is a lesson to be learned here, it’s that steroids will not only ruin your health and well-being, but that in the long-run, they’ll bankrupt you too.
Filed under: Research (Studies, Reports, etc.), Sports Performance
