Why is Drug abuse such a problem facing the I.O.C? Discuss.

There is no sportsmanship in using these types of drug. Another major problem that faces the I.O.C is also that there are so many drugs on offer; The association are never going to catch every contestant using the drugs through testing, this is because as one drug is being discovered and banned another alternative will be in development, this will happen continuously with the same drug over and over again. The association are never going to be able to completely find out every contestant using performance-enhancing drugs even if they employ the best of scientists to come up with the tests. More and more athletes are turning to drugs now in the thought that “If you can’t beat them, join them!” But is their really much point in watching the Olympics if it’s mainly cheats taking part and that are winning. How does that make the athletes who are actually trying they hardest and pushing their bodies to the best of their abilities feel to be beaten by cheats? The athletes who do take drugs are only in it for the following reasons, fame, status and wealth. If we refer to one of the Olympic Moral Motto’s it goes completely against why they do it, ‘The most important thing is not the winning but the taking part’.

A lot of controversy comes down to when the I.O.C are deciding what drugs are legal and what are illegal. For example there is much debate over whether or not blood doping should be legal or illegal, at the minute it’s illegal according to the I.O.C., but is it a performance-enhancing drug? Is it not natural that the body produces more blood when it is in a loss of it?

So I can conclude that the main reason drug abuse causes so many problems to the I.O.C is because so much money is wasted on the tests and procedures that are carried out to make the games as fair as possible.