Summary Of Kid On Steroids Willing To Risk It All For Success

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Risking it All In the article “Kid on Steroids Willing to Risk It All for Success,” published on nbcnews.com, March 3, 2008, author Jacqueline Stenson, examines how professional athletes who are using steroids are having a strong influence on the younger generation to use steroids in order to help their performance and be able to fulfill their dreams of making the pros. Stenson begins by saying students in 8th through 12th grade have admitted to using steroids in a conducted confidential survey. 57 percent of those kids said professional athletes influenced them to use steroids, 63 percent said professional athletes had an influences on their friends to use steroids. 80 percent of users and 35 percent of non-users
17 percent of students surveyed said they had used protein powders, creatine, and amino acid supplements to gain body mass. While 35 percent admitted to using supplements such as, fat burners, energy drinks, and caffeine pills in order to try to lose weight. Jay Hoffman blames the education system on not educating students of the dangers of these drugs and the influence of elite athletes who use steroids. Hoffman stated "I believe there is an inherent responsibility of being a role model, whether they want it or not, it comes with the territory” (Stenson). Dr. Linn Goldberg, is involved with the national programs to counter steroids in youth sports, he stated "Sports role models are very powerful in a young kid 's life" (Stenson). The goal of his programs is to educate kids of the alternatives rather than resorting to using steroids, which include training regiments and a variety of diets which are able to help athletes gain muscle the proper
Reading this article raised many questions for me on the amount of influence athletes who use steroids have on the younger generation of athletes. What concerns me the most now is how many kids out there are currently using steroids because the surveys done in the article were done in 2006. So who knows how many more kids are using steroids because I believe the number has gone up in the past couple years. It is shocking to see kids, who are using steroids, only admit to using them when they were asked in the surveys, but not tell their parents, coaches or even friends. I know there would be a lot of consequences with admitting to using steroids, but as time passes, people are going to start to notice a change in your physical appearance and people are going to start to think weight lifting did not change your appearance so substantially. To think these kids are probably using steroids in their homes while their parents are not looking, it takes a lot of guts to be able to hide such a deep secret from their parents. If kids see professional athletes getting in trouble for using steroids, I would think they would realize it is not smart to use steroids themselves, but they do it anyway because they see how good those athletes are, so then they resort to steroids because it will make them a better athlete. These kids are risking their overall health for the future because using steroids at a young age can lead to health risks