Athletes from all countries united in Sydney, Australia this summer for the year 2000 Summer Olympic Games. Personally, I enjoy watching the Olympics and seeing athletes from all different backgrounds competing against each other, striving for the gold medal. It's amazing how hard all of the athletes have worked for this one time to shine. Unfortunately, not all of these athletes have achieved this opportunity honestly. Some athletes have become accustomed to using performance enhancing drugs, in order to push themselves to the top in their respective fields. Performance enhancing drugs such as steroids have been abused in sports for a long time, and this year's Summer Olympics in Sydney underscored this continuing problem.
One of the most popular performance enhancing drugs in sports today is steroids. Steroids are performance-enhancers, helping modern athletes perform at a greater ability. Athletes choose to use steroids to push themselves a little harder in training or during competition. The result from steroid use is rapid muscle growth in a short period of time. Steroids aren't magical; you cannot simply take a dosage and then notice muscle growth immediately. "Simply taking performance enhancing drugs will not benefit performance. They are effective only when combined with rigorous training."(Olympic Glory 1). In order to see physical results, one must train extremely hard. "Steroids can be taken orally or they can be injected in to an athlete's system." (Wadler 1). It takes a few months to notice physical changes from steroid abuse. The difference will not be that the athlete can all of a sudden think faster or improve skillfully, the difference will bet hat they will have more muscle mass. The only benefit from steroids is that they enhance muscle growth for the athlete. .
Steroids have always been that gateway drug to success in America. It has been that one "golden ticket" to take an athlete straight to the top of the world rankings.