Why Do Lance Armstrong And Agassi Have In Common

Problematic Performance Enhancers
What do Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, and Andre Agassi have in common? While these individuals share the characteristic of being a professional athlete, all three men have been linked to the use of performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drugs have existed for years, but they recently have become a debated topic in the sports world. This is because athletes use these drugs, such as steroids and testosterone boosters, to enhance their abilities in their respective sports. While these drugs have the ability to help athletes, they have the ability to create long term and short term health problems. To protect an athlete’s current health, to prevent conflict between national athletic organizations, and
While professional athletes are very skilled, performance enhancers can improve even the best players. When a player uses drugs such as steroids, it cannot be determined whether the athlete’s ability came through their own abilities or through use of the drug. This issue is prominent in the sport of baseball, where performance enhancing drugs have been a widely debated topic for years. Many talented players have been linked to using performance enhancers over the course of their careers. Because this is viewed as cheating, many of these talented players have been refused the opportunity to enter the Hall of Fame. A player who serves as a case study for this situation is Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds was a talented player, and he currently serves as the hitting coach for the Miami Marlins. Bonds has been linked to steroid use, however, which has hurt his reputation and his legacy. Steroid use was not the cause of Bond’s ability, as “Long before the time when anybody thinks he juiced, Bonds was the best plyer of his generation, a 30-30 outfielder with multiple MVPs before he turned 30” (Rosenberg 1). Barry Bonds was a talented player who went where no player had gone before. His use of steroids, however, has penalized him because he has yet to be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Bonds has a multitude of talent, displayed through his coaching of players how to hit well like he hit. These achievements and skills are greatly overshadowed by his steroid use during the twilight of his career. Instead of being remembered as one of the best athletes of his generation, Bonds instead is viewed as a fraud and as a cheater. Because people do not want to associate the greatest athletes with unnatural talent and cheating, performance enhancing drugs should not be allowed in professional