This group of computer links deal with the use of performance enhancing drugs and practices in the sporting arena.  They primarily focus on the use of steroids and blood doping.  There are many reasons why this kind of drug use is prohibited in athletics, besides just the physical harm they cause.  Performance enhancing drugs violate the basic premise of athletics--fair competition.  At times athletes may feel that using steroids, for example, is necessary to do because many of their competitors are doing it, and thus the athletes are coerced into taking drugs to be on an equal level.  Blood doping has received the same negative attention, as it is commonly used among distance runners and cyclists to build up oxygen in their blood.  Athletics are becoming more of a competition of drugs, rather than of athletes.  These links will help to define what steroids, blood doping, and other performance enhances are, and how they effect the body.  There is a link to NCAA which deals with drug testing, as well as one to the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport.  These two organizations talk about the ethics surrounding performance-enhancing drug use, and what is being done to put an end to it among athletes.

Blood Doping: Is It Really Worth It? (http://is.tc.cc.tx.us/~mstorey/beckham.html)
This extensively detailed out how blood doping is used among athletes, and the effects it brings about.
A link from that page that is especially useful is:

Effects of blood doping and Gamow's High Altitude Bed  (http://spot.colorado.edu/~gamow/research/doping.html)
This has background info about blood doping as well as charts and graphs that show the effects of blood doping on the human respiratory system.

OSU Student Health Services - Steroid Abuse
(http://www.orst.edu/dept/student_health/STEROID.HTM)
This page gives a definition as to what steroids are, their risks, and how they work.

Use of Anabolic/Androgenic Steroids by Athletes (http://www.medstudents.com.br/sport/sport2.htm)
This gives a more detailed description of steroids and its muscular effects--a more medical approach to understanding how steroids enhance the body.

Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport  (http://www.cces.ca)
This is part of the home page for the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sports.  This page states why this organization believes drugs shouldn't be allowed in sport.

NCAA CBSA Drug Testing  (http://www.ncaa.org/cbsa/drugtesting.html)
This is part of NCAA's home page which focuses solely on its drug testing procedures for intercollegiate athletics.
 

Return to class readings page:  Kinesiology 493: Philosophy of Kinesiology