Steroid Use In Professional Sports

When approaching the issue as well as trouble of steroid use amongst athletes, it is important to acknowledge that juiced athletes are in part a product of the increasingly medicalized society in which we live in. Within this society, possible social problems are converted into individual troubles (cf. Mills). Oftentimes we see the problem as arises from the trouble (within the individual) instead of the issue (within the entire society). Also, the inherent nature of the behaviour at hand becomes ignored. The underlying structural issues (pressure inflicted upon athletes by society, rewards of winning, disappointment and dishonouring of losing) fade to the background. Since the social system is not under any sort of scrutiny, the individuals are faced with all the blame for a personal problem inflicted upon them not always by their own right.
Performance enhancing drugs have had a permanent foothold in professional sports and the media surrounding them since their use began. They are used for one purpose; not only to perform, but to be the greatest, and outperform any competitors, at all costs. Their popularity arises the question, when did athletics shift from being a natural display of genuine hard work, natural born capability, and determination, to winning being the only matter of
Steroid use is both a trouble and a form of deviance. Since athletes are completely aware that they are risking putting their name and all which they have worked for on the line by using steroids, they are troubled. These troubles also lie within the scope of athlete’s immediate milieu, which would be the extreme competitiveness between other athletes of similar capability, and the win-at-all-costs attitude. This attitude is common between athletes, and the most cherished value of each of these