Limits are tough to accept. There are the limits that the world creates, like the idea that there is always someone smart or more successful than you are. Then there are the natural limits-we can’t fly, we can’t read minds, we can’t breathe underwater. Yet some people believe they can beat the unbeatable, and defy the limits of human strength and speed.
Steroids are the common name for the synthetic male hormone enhancers typically taken by athletes attempting to enhance their physical performance. They are only legal when prescribed by doctors. They are usually taken in six- to 12-week doses, either in the form of a pill, a cream or an injection.
With the release of the Mitchell Report, which singled out over 80 professional baseball players for their involvement in the use of performance enhancing drugs, last December, the public became aware of how serious a problem steroid usage is.
Athletes of all sizes in any sport can be tested at a moment’s notice in an Olympic, league, or other professional or collegiate level. If an athlete is caught, it can be one of the most humiliating, career-crushing demises imaginable. So here lies the question: if testing is done on other competitive levels in sports, should steroid testing be acceptable at a high school level?
Those who argue against the idea certainly have ample support, saying that testing is not only a violation of rights, but an economic impracticality, considering the testing fee. Granted, these are legitimate concerns, but the risks can’t be ignored either.
First, there are obvious health problems. Adolescents using steroids first risk halted growth, as their skeleton matures as a faster rate than the rest of their body develops. If they use needles to inject the substances, they become more prone to contracting diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B and C. Steroid users are also exposed to risk of tumors in the liver and kidney, blood pressure and cholesterol problems, fluid retention and severe acne. This is all in addition to a chance of sexual impotency, and a wide array of emotional problems including everything from mood swings to suicidal tendencies.
Then comes the point that most relates to Stuyvesant athletes: the competition. Physically, in comparison to other, sometimes more accomplished New York City teams, Stuyvesant students are not the most likely candidates of steroid abuse.
Yet, a University of Michigan survey from 2006 said that 2.5 percent of American high school students admitted to abusing steroids. That isn’t a huge number, but if your team is playing against a team with even one member of that 2.5 percent, the competition is automatically flawed. Hard work, practice and coordination become unnecessary. It’s cheating at its best.
A 2004 MSNBC editorial article claims that if high schools “don’t test for steroids, [they] are telling kids to go ahead and use them, because they won’t get caught.” If this becomes a reality, competition becomes permanently defective, and the American ideal of “rooting for the underdog” becomes as safe of a bet as the Department of Education closing for a snow day.
So what is there to do about this? Unfortunately, nothing much. There are the extremes: allow and encourage steroids to be used by all athletes, or carry out a level of McCarthyism in Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) to “make examples” of those who make poor decisions in using performance enhancers. These, however, would be against high school athletic codes of friendly competition as well as economically impossible.
There are however, smaller solution ideas that can be carried out. It is true that all athletes are required to take a health education course-why not formally fill them in on exactly what steroids can do to their bodies?
Steroid-users also interact daily with their parents, siblings, friends, teammates, coaches, and other people whom they trust. If PSAL and other high school athletic organizations were able to spread information about how to identify the drugs and the symptoms they cause, the important figures in a young athlete’s life would undoubtedly be more likely to pick up on the situation and voice their opinions.
Finally, there is one person in an athlete’s life who will necessarily identify any health issues: his or her doctor. When you really think about it, it does seem insufficient for PSAL to only require one doctor’s examination for up to a full nine months of participation in rigorous activities while interacting athletically with other teenagers whose primary purpose in meeting you is to surpass all your physical endeavors. If they could institute a policy that encouraged periodical full examinations (as opposed to a nice stamp from a secretary), performance enhancing drug issues could be accurately defined and treated.
So maybe we can’t really save the world from steroid abuse, but it definitely is an issue that should be addressed by high school students who care about hard work in sports. Think of it this way: there’s no worse situation than dedicating your entire existence to a sport for weeks, hitting that big game day, and coming face to face with a seventeen-year-old Barry Bonds look-alike. That’s a limit that no honest athlete should have to accept.
