Competing Against Doping - 3073 Words

Competing Against Doping Sport is thought of as an activity that is governed by a set of rules and is engaged in competitively, while doping is the idea of using banned natural or synthetic substance for the purpose of enhancing performance in sport. In this paper I will argue against the fallacies presented on the topic of allowing doping in sports. I will argue that the notion of doping in sports is not based on sound moral reasoning and given the choice, not all athletes will chose to dope. The idea of doping in sport has been around since the early 19th century, with the first ever case being recorded at the 1896 Bordeaux-Paris race following the death of Welsh cyclist Arthur Lindon (European Commission, 2003). I will†¦show more content†¦Cycling calls for an athlete to be 19, while boxing and gymnastics have a minimum age of 17 years old and 16 years old respectively. The youngest age requirements of all the events are for swimming and diving at 15 and 14 ye ars of age. With an Olympians career starting at such a young age, it brings about the question: can an athlete really consider a two or four year ban a small penalty? The answer is no. The average age of the athletes who participated in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics was 24 years old, with the average age of retirement for a world class athlete being only 33 years of age (Strength Planet, 2008). With the Summer Olympics happening every four years, it follows then that the average 20 year old athlete has the chance to compete in only four Olympics before retirement. If guilty of trafficking or administering performance enhancing drugs, the chances of qualifying are reduced to three years. The argument has been made that when â€Å"the risk of being caught is zero, athletes will all chose to cheat† (Savulescu et al., 2008). Two problems arise from this argument, the first being with the premise and the second with the conclusion. 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