Main Thesis: Game of Shadows
by Mark Fainaru and Lance Williams they illustrate how performance enhancing
drugs use in sports have been caused by social pressures and how cheating has
evolved into a science.
Support Thesis: Social pressures influence athletes into taking
performance-enhancing drugs. The constant examination of their lives puts a lot
of pressure on the daily decisions they make that others would carelessly make.
Lead In: Laura Egendorf, a young adult book writer who writes about
adolescents issues states how athletes are the apex of the social pyramid.
Concrete Detail: “Few people are more admired in today’s society
than successful athletes. Adolescents view them as role models, adults clamor
for their autographs and companies seek them out to endorse products (Egendorf
8).
Commentary: Egendorf states that athletes are the pinnacle of
social status in America .
Adolescents wish to be them, adults wish they were them and companies want to
use them. With all this commotion over this elite group of people athletes must
sustain an elite status. In order for some athletes to be at this status day in
and day out they turn to PED’s.
Lead in: The pressures of sports have led to many mental disorders to the
athletes. Beverly L. Stiles highlights the effects when she says,
Concrete Detail: “Sports participation emphasizes competitive
success. There are often social expectations and pressure to achieve and
to win. Likewise, those with eating disorders and body image
disturbances are often subject to external pressures to achieve as well as
pressures to appear a certain way” (Stiles).
Commentary: Sitles statement uncovers the effects of emphasis on competitive
success. She states how these pressures lead to eating disorders and body image
issues. Athletes with body image disorders are subject to the pressures to be a
certain way and improve their body image. In the pursuit of this success
athletes may turn to drugs in order to meet the expectations of themselves and
others around them.
Lead In: Laura Egendorf a young adult’s writer who writes about the
struggles of teens states how if steroids were legal that it would be a
legitimate reason to become a better player.
Concrete Detail: “One important consideration should guide our
condemnations: Big Time Sport is Big Time Business. The Olympics is the biggest
of the big, and the pressures to succeed are nearly overwhelming. Athletes are
always seeking some edge over their competitors, and truth of the matter is
that the use of steroids, if only they were legal, would be a legitimate reason
for performance enhancing as any other” (Egendor 83-84).
Commentary: Egendorf states that the use of performance enhancing
drugs is a legitimate reason to gain an edge. A sports team is a business and
if the use of PED’s helps the business than athletes should be able to use
them. Egandorf explains that athletes already use substances that enhance
performance that are legal however the use of PED’s has been banned. The uses
of PED’s are used to create business and athletes buy into using the drugs to
please the public and avoid criticism.
Lead In: Judy Monroe, a children and young adults writer of
multiple biographies illustrates how young athletes hope to stand out to
others. Athletes try to stand out by taking drugs to perform at a higher level.
Concrete Detail: “These drugs may tempt teen athletes at a time
when they are looking for a performance edge. Some may want to play well,
hoping to earn a sports scholarship for college” (Monroe 9)
Commentary: Judy Monroe describes the situation of young athletes
who wish to compete at the college level. High school students are pushed by
parents, teachers and others to be at an exemplary level in every aspect of
life. When it comes to sports in particular athletes have found a way to make
achieving their goals easier. Athletes are tempted to take illegal substances
to perform at a superstar level. This is a problem in America that athletic associations
are hoping to solve.
Lead in: Judy Monroe a children’s and young adults biographies
writer states how steroids are from a mentality in society of getting ahead.
Concrete Detail: “The root of steroid use is society’s addiction to
bigger, faster, stronger. The win-at-all-costs mentality[way of thinking] leads
to cheating and unethical behavior” (Monroe
15)
Commentary: Monroe ’s
observation states how the people of modern society always want the edge on
their competitors. The society of today has a win-at-all-costs mentality. This
mentality hinders Americans ability to cope with failure. This inability to
accept failure leads to cheating and unethical behavior in order to achieve
goals. In the world of sports it is the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Support Thesis: Cheating has been around since the beginning of
sports. Athletes have always looked for an extra edge over their competitors. In
this search of the extra edge they have turned to cheating and this cheating
has changed over the history of sports.
Lead In: David Potter a writer for the CNN website talks about the
history of cheating in the Olympics. Potter states that the earliest form of
cheating was performance suppression.
Concrete Detail: “Some forms of performance suppression were more
effective than others. The most colorful was to place a curse on an athlete so
he would not do his best (or the gods of the underworld would drive him mad).
This often involved the burial of a lead tablet containing the curse in some
place that mattered -- ancient racing venues have produced a fair number of
these items” (Potter).
Commentary: David Potter states how cheating was done in the ancient times.
Athletes during the time use suppression tactics to effect performance of
athletes. He then gives an example of the most interesting way that athletes
were subjected to performance suppression. His example shows the earliest forms
of cheating which has escalated to the cheating of today of performance
enhancing drugs.
Lead In: Ida Walker a young adult writer who reports the problems
in society that interests young adults narrates that PED use in sports is not a
new thing.
Concrete Detail “Although steroids have often been in the news
during the past few years, they are not a new discovery, and neither is the
desire to perform and look better. Some researchers have suggested that even
the athletes of Ancient Greece took a little something to give an added boost
to their performance level and to heighten their masculinity” (Walker 15).
Commentary: Ida’s quote narrates how steroids have been around
since the Ancient Greeks. The media has portrayed steroids as this completely
new way of cheating. However this is untrue, steroids have been around since
sports themselves and people have been using them for the same reasons of
looking and feeling better. The mixture of steroids has changed to accommodate
more enhancements for athletes. This quote emphasizes that even through all the
advancements in society we still have the same mentality of thousands of years
ago and have only tweaked the drugs of the past.
Lead In: ESPN.com which is the
worldwide leader in sports reports the top 10 biggest cheaters in baseball. The
top spot went to the “Black Sox” World Series.
Concrete Detail: “Corked bats -- hey,
the batter still has to make contact. Loaded balls -- the pitcher still has to
get the ball in the strike zone or get the batter to swing. There is a certain
amount of skill involved in all those cheating practices.
But
the 1919 mob buyoff -- that is just reprehensible in every way shape and form.
None of the cheaters you mentioned are banned forever from baseball -- the 1919
Black Sox
have
several people who will forever be remembered as just what they were ...
cheaters” (Biggest Cheaters in Baseball).
Commentary: In baseball history
ESPN.com reports that the 1919 World Series was the pronominal in baseball
history. The game was this way for 3 reasons loaded balls, corked bats and the
mob buyoff. The changing of the equipment changed how the players skills were
used while using the rigged equipment. This gives the players a boost on their
skills. The mob buyoff effected the games drastically because the players would
throw away plays that they would have made if they really tried. The teams were
caught; however cheating has not gone away. Cheating has only changed it is now
a change in one’s biological make up with the use of PED’s.
Lead in:
Gillis and Charle writers from Maclean’s a Canadian weekly news magazine state
Concrete Detail: “No longer content to
build on what the genetic lottery gave them, athletes are increasingly eager to
reprogram and redesign themselves down to their molecular building blocks,
drawing on a range of scientific advancements that, by comparison, make old-school
performance enhancers like
anabolic steroids seem down-right primitive. At the conventional end of this
spectrum are "cognitive training" tools like the NeuroTracker: its
calisthenics for the brain are safe, non-invasive and relatively inexpensive. At
the other lies the long-feared threat of genetic doping, technology that
remains decades off due to recent setbacks in clinical testing.
And in the space
between are technologies and procedures close enough to commercial viability
that athletes might already be using them. New drugs that block the protein that suppresses muscle growth,
for example, are currently being tested to treat muscular dystrophy. The World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has added them to its list of prohibited substances.
Also in the pipeline are so-called HIF stabilizers, which activate genes
responsible for producing red blood cells. They're being developed to treat
anemia, but could conceivably boost the performance of athletes in endurance sports such as cycling” (Gillis,
Charlie ).
Commentary:
This protestation of drug use in sports explains how athletes of today are
using more drugs than the conventional anabolic steroids that were used by past
cheaters. The athletes are using the drugs because they are unsatisfied with
their god given abilities and amp themselves up with drugs. Anabolic steroids
have become an old style of cheating and athletes are using protein muscle
growth and drugs that activate genes. These are the small steps moving closer
to a new form of cheating outside of muscle growth hormones.
Lead in: Judy Monroe a biography writer for young adults and
children reports the first use of steroids in sports
Concrete Detail: “In 1954, reports of steroids used by athletes in
a sport hit news. World weight-lifting champions were reported to be using the
drug” (Monroe
16).
Commentary: Monroe ’s
statement shows the first involvement of the media’s fascination with the use
of steroids. At the time using PED’s was not illegal. However, through the
years society has found the dangers of using steroids. This constant
documentation of the use of PED’s has frowned on using PED’s. However, these
constant reports on PED’s have also advertised and influenced young athletes to
use PED’s.
Works
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