The use of illegal drugs in sports“It's on 40, on 30, on 20, on 10, on 5, TOUCHDOWN!!” Can you imagine the joy of having 100,000 people chanting your name and cheering as loud as they can just for you? Now try to imagine having all of this and then having it taken away because you tested positive for illegal drugs. This is the harsh reality for many professional athletes. They get a little taste of greatness but instead of working harder they take a drug and immediately notice an improvement. Then they take a little more until they become completely dependent on the drug for success. Unfortunately, hiding drug use is a big deal for most professional athletes. As illustrated in the film The Program, this is a problem even at the university level. As athletes they have a constant drive to be the best and to win and when that isn't physically possible that's when athletes turn to drugs. It gives them that extra edge that they feel they can't get by working harder. This is partly society's fault because no one cheers for an underdog, it's in our nature to try to cheer for the best. People have a hard enough time remembering who won the race, much less who lost. Most people feel that it is simply too much to worry about and simply too much to remember. (Long)DopingThe use of drugs in an attempt to improve sports performance is often referred to as doping. The word "dope" is thought to originate from the South African language. The drug referred to a primitive alcoholic drink that was used as a stimulant in ceremonial dances. Gradually the term took on wider usage and, in reference to sport, became known as “doping”. In today's sporting context, doping refers to athletes' use of banned substances or methods that allow one to visually detect whether an athlete is taking drugs. There are currently no tests for high school athletes and very few tests for college athletes, especially at Div. III and Div. II schools. I can't see this problem going away in the near future, but there is always hope. I believe the only truly clean athletes are those kids who have yet to engage in organized sports. By this I mean those that are not funded by the school or community but by the parents and/or children themselves. Examples of these would be "Biddy Ball" and "Pee Wee Football". I think so because at this level adults are more likely to yell instead of providing drugs to their athletes. As a final question I ask: “Has society really gotten to the point where young men and women are willing to risk social exile along with their lives just for a few moments of glory?”?