Sports Players: Get Away with More Than Average People

Why do sports superstars get different punishment then everyday people when it comes to drugs.

Many people from many sports take recreational drugs. These include Tom Boonen (Professional road bicycle racer), Richard Gasquet (Tennis player), Michael Phelps (Olympic swimmer) and Ben Cousins (Australian Rules football player). Why do these people get away with a small telling off from their sports superiors and a fine, where ordinary people get a fine and may face jail.

Yes they may be under a lot of pressure to be good at their sport but that is no excuse. Most people are under pressure from everyday things. This could include work or trying to pay their bills. Does this mean you have to turn to recreational drugs to calm down? No it doesn’t. Deep breathing, muscle relaxation and visualization are great ways to release stress. Taking drugs just suppresses that stress and may be worse in the long run. So why take recreational drugs? There is actually no need for any sports player to take them.

But this is only half the story. It is actually nobody’s right to criticize them. By taking these drugs they are only stopping themselves from becoming better at their sports. So it is only hurting them. This should not in fact affect the people that think of them as role models. Many of these sports players did not ask to be role models.

Being a role model comes with being famous. But these sports players are famous for sport. Throughout the ages people that play sport and are actually good at it have never been the sort of people to behave. Why should that change now?

It has also taken a lot of attention away from performance enhancing drugs. There has been a lot of debate about whether performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in sports. Good and not so good arguments have been presented on both sides.  Thomas H. Murray, president of the Hastings Centre says “Sports that revere records and historical comparisons (think of baseball and home runs) would become unmoored by drug-aided athletes obliterating old standards.” Where as Adrianne Blue, Senior lecturer in international journalism at city university London has also made a  very good argument by stating “Today, sport’s dirty little secret is drugs, and it is high time we made them legal. Performance-enhancing drugs may not be desirable, but they are here to stay. What we can do away with is the hypocrisy.” Both valid arguments but it is up to you, the spectators to show these sports players what will happen if they take drugs.