Steroids- Where did they come from where did they go?

Steroids have been everywhere recently, in the news, the athletes, and our very own classroom discussions, but where does this mystery substance come from and why is it bothering us so? I did a little research to find out how this substance first entered the competetive atheltics scene.

“Americans like to think the U.S leads the “Sports without Drugs Crusade”, but the reality is that the U.S is viewed as one of the dirtiest nations in the world “. John Ruger, a past chair of the United States Olympic Committee Athletes Advisory Council, said this. Where did it all go wrong for us? The first uses of steroids in Olympic competition have been said to be during the 1960 Olympics, where a few Russian and American strength athletes took the drug. And then “by 1964, however, the secret behind the startling progress of a number of strength athletes began to leak out, and as a result steroids were soon being used extensively by athletes in all strength sports”. So it was the strength athletes that first needed the drug for competition. It was then a natural, graceful slide into popular use, and by the early 1990’s “approximately one million individuals in the United States used anabolic steroids for athletic achievement or to assist in gaining a more muscular physical appearance. During the same period, use of anabolic steroids among U.S high school students was estimated to be between one quarter and one half million.” Only in 1988 when Ben Johnson the sprinter was stripped of his gold medal for testing positive did the real crackdown begin. Why did the drug have to spread so fast and so far? Could steroids have ever ONLY been used for their more peaceful purposes? Certainly it is a miracle drug to some people, such as someone who has undergone a serious injury and needs assistance rebuilding muscle. What factor was it that leads first our weightlifters and eventually all athletes and even habitual weightlifters to procure the drug? The spirit of competition is a powerful force in many people, especially testosterone driven males (who are more likely to use the drug). It seems, after asking these questions and thinking about the history and effects of the drug, that it could never have been prevented. It is only natural, with the insane amount of pressure and competitive feelings that we lay on our professional and amateur athletes, which has only been intensifying in recent years, leads to athletes searching for assistance. It almost seems like a necessity, and I think that many, many more athletes got away with using steroids than were caught and we are at the very end of a period of extreme use of the drug.