Over the past couple of years the misuse of performance-enhancing drugs in the world of sports has increased enormously and no one seems to have the answer for this unbalanced behaviour. So the question arises … What exactly are we doing wrong? Is there a reason an athlete would risk years, months, days, hours of hard work to lose everything in a matter of seconds?



Just to mention some examples of where doping has touched base we can mention: bicycle racing, sprinting, track, baseball, and tennis. One of the most acknowledged cases being the recent Tour de France at which daily reporting of doping endangered the race as riders had to quit the competition despite their efforts to be part of such prestigious event.

If we take a look back, we find the beginnings of the problem through the misuse of anabolic (muscle-building) steroids at the gyms, fact that was increasingly stimulated by the day-to-day social pressures and the demanding life styles of our times. All this gathered together makes us take further steps to become super people and for those in the sports world who need to satisfy their desires to exceed their natural limits and capabilities to become super athletes.

Unfortunately, there is no gain without pain…and to better express the frustration and guilt of a bad decision there is the new investigation the IAAF has initiated against former triple Olympic Champion Marion Jones who recently admitted taking steroids before the 2000 Sydney Games.

Jones, the World Road Running champion has returned her Olympic medals and further actions will be taken regarding money, questionings, and banning of the sport. Another runner at Sydney 2000, Russian third place, Privalova, who will receive the Silver medal instead after the latest events stated that "No, I'm not happy at all to get that silver instead of the bronze," "I'm not happy because Marion's admission to drug use is a real tragedy for our sport."

Is it a new trend to win a medal and a year later returned it? Or are we heading down the slippery slope? Or are we all just an immense fraud as we cannot accept what are limits…certainly, only time will answer such thoughts as the new sport generations will need to make a decision if it is worth the risk to win but lose it all for life.