The use of performance-enhancing substances by athletes has a long history, predating the ancient Greek Olympiads. This report compares anti-doping policies for performance enhancing substances among the Olympic movement and three professional sports - Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NFL.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to one of the most controversial issues in modern society—steroid abuse among athletes—as well as to the ongoing debate over the use and misuse of illegal substances in amateur and professional sporting events. Now in its second edition, this book provides readers, with updated critical and objective information about steroids and doping in sports. The first two chapters deal with the history and background of steroids and doping in sports in addition to current problems, controversies, and possible solutions. Additionally, they provide readers with the background to understand the nature of the problems involving steroid use and doping in sports in the United States and worldwide. New to this edition is the Perspectives chapter. Composed of diverse voices, this chapter allows readers to gain insight from scholars, athletes, journalists, and others who have a stake in the issues. Remaining chapters provide a variety of research tools, such as primary documents and biographical profiles, for readers to use in continuing their research. Other resources include a chronology, a glossary, and an extensive annotated bibliography.

Doping in sports and the fight against it has gained increasing attention in recent years. The pharmacological basis for a possible performance enhancement in competitive sport through the administration of prohibited substances and methods as well as the analytical disclosure of such practices are comprehensively covered in 21 contributions by outstanding and distinctive authors.

Doping, Performance-Enhancing Drugs, and Hormones in Sport: Mechanisms of Action and Methods of Detection examines the biochemistry and bioanalytical aspects of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and other questionable procedures used by athletes to enhance performance. The book informs the specialist of emerging knowledge and techniques and allows the non-specialist to grasp the underlying science and current practice of the discipline. With clear and compelling language appropriate for a broad spectrum of readers, this book provides background on prevalence, types of agents, their actual or supposed benefits, and their negative effects on health. The technical aspects of detection are discussed, followed by a discussion of why detection is a problematic and still-evolving science. To facilitate comprehension, each chapter is organized in a uniform way with six sections: (1) standard medical uses, (2) why the drugs are used by athletes, (3) biological mechanism of action, (4) what research says about efficacy in improving performance, (5) major health side effects from use and abuse in sport, and 6) concluding key points. Presents the scientific concepts of how performance enhancers work, how they are used, and how they are detected and masked from detection Features language that is neither simplistic to scientists nor too sophisticated for a large, diverse global audience Provides a short “close-up” in each chapter to illustrate key topics that engage, entertain, and create a novel synthesis of thought

Sports fans or not, readers will be fascinated by this revealing examination of the pressures leading to the widespread use of steroids in sport and the negative, unintended consequences of their ban. From Baron Pierre de Coubertin's original objectives in establishing the modern Olympic Games to the increasingly widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs during the Cold War to the 1998 drug scandal during the Tour de France and beyond, Steroids: A New Look at Performance-Enhancing Drugs puts the social construction of steroids as a banned substance under the microscope and interprets the implications of that particular conception of steroid use in sport. Clearly written and highly accessible for all readers, this book addresses a pressing issue in professional and high-performance sport—the use of steroids—by placing it within the historical context of the ongoing desire to achieve the pinnacle of human sport. Topics examined in detail include the three major crises of Ben Johnson's positive test in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the creation of the World Anti-Doping Association, and the House Committee on Government Oversight's probe into steroid use. The author provides a critical examination of the current ban on steroids, and boldly advocates a common-sense solution to the complex problem of steroid use in sport: the adoption of harm-reduction strategies and policies rather than outright proscription.

Steroids have been made out to be the modern plague of the day. The media chastize athletes who use them and sentence users to an early death. Outspoken critics claim there's a laundry list of horrific, irreversible side effects. But the truth, as HBO may have summed up best in their special programming on the subject, is that despite all the smoke, there's no fire. Hardly a spark. In Dunks, Doubles, Doping, Nathan Jendrick offers a researched, unbiased view on anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. The truth is that steroids didn't kill Lyle Alzado, Steve Bechler or Ken Caminiti. The truth is that steroids won't be the cause of death for Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, or Marion Jones--athletes accused of drug use. The one thing that steroids are killing though, is sports. Steroids have ruined the landscape of competition not by their chemical properties, but by the massive hysteria that surrounds them in the media, in gyms and in the stands of stadiums. And it's all in the name of money. Fans are turned off by the scandals and adolescents, who might be the only ones at a real health risk by using steroids, are putting the future of sports on their shoulders, and on the line, by trying to get big unnaturally too early. Dunks, Doubles, Doping includes interviews with top athletes, physicians and personalities while covering and revealing the truth behind steroids and confronting the new horizon of cheating: Gene doping. 3D is a can't-miss if you want the truth behind America's latest sports scandal.

This book examines the issue of performance-enhancing drugs and its surrounding arguments. Performance-Enhancing Drugs familiarizes readers with the history of these drugs, the motivators for using them, and their side effects. Some of the biggest scandals involving performance-enhancing drugs are included, and ways to combat use of these drugs are also addressed. Color photos and informative sidebars accompany easy-to-follow text. Features include a timeline, facts, additional resources, web sites, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.