Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Track and Field

Steroids are known to be a drug that enhances your strength and muscle size. Many men and women strive to have a toned appearance and look to steroids to speed up the process. For some, it seems to be an easy alternative, but they are often unaware of the health risks. Two men made the horrible decision to take this drug in order to strive in their competitive sport. What seemed to be something that would boost their career ended up ruining their athletic career.

One of the men was Dwain Chambers. He was born in London, England, on April 5, 1978, making him forty years old. He was a British track sprinter. His career was in track and field. He won international medals and was known as one of the fastest European sprinters in the history of athletics. He ranked fifth in the British all-time list. He became the youngest-ever world medalist in the 1999 World Championship, winning bronze. He was the best European performer in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He broke many records and was extremely well known. All of those incredible victories came in the first few years of his professional track and field career.

Then he started using the steroid THG. In an article published in 2008, it stated that THG was not the only substance he had used during his career. He admitted to using epitestosterone cream, EPO, HGH, insulin lispro, modafinil, and liothyronine. He was stripped of the 100-meter European title and the record he achieved in 2002. Chambers returned to competition in June 2006 and won gold with his teammates. He later went on to win a silver and gold medal. In total, he won seventeen championship metals. He was banned from all Olympics, Commonwealth Games, and much of the European racing circuit from 2006 to 2012. He returned to the Olympic games in 2012 after his drug ban was over. He is now a father to two boys and married to Leonie Daley.

Another well-known athlete who made the decision to take performance-enhancing drugs was Lance Armstrong. He was born on September 18, 1917, in Plano, Texas. He is now forty-seven, but at the young age of sixteen, Armstrong started competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion. He then started his career in cycling. He had many victories, including stage eight of the 1993 Tour de France and stage eighteen of the 1995 Tour de France. In 1996, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal metastatic testicular cancer. He founded the lance Armstrong foundation to help other cancer survivors. He returned to cycling, and thought his years; he acquired seven Tour de France titles. He was a member of the US Postal/Discovery tea, Motorola, Cofidis, Astana, and Team RadioShack.

In 2012 Armstrong was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. The drugs consisted of erythropoietin and human growth hormone. The reason he got away with his drug use over a long period of time was that he got his blood doped, as well as false documents saying that he had passed the mandatory drug tests. As a result, he was stripped of all titles and metals. He received a lifetime ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Code. This completely ended his competitive career. In 2011, he participated in a non-competitive bike ride across Iowa. After many lawsuits were filed against Armstrong, he agreed to pay $5 million to the U.S. Government. Armstrong violated his contract with the United States Postal Service and committed fraud. Armstrong continues to get lawsuits filed against him and, in return, has to give millions of dollars.

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