Doping has always been a problem in sports world. Athletes dope, knowing they could be caught, but still decide to drug to have more chances of winning their competition. Athletes that stimulate should be banned from sports for a considered amount of time, because doping is cheating at its finest form. This type of cheating is dangerous for the athlete himself, for their federation and for fellow competitors. Due to specific athlete’s needs, these substances could have secondary effects that will get nasty at future time.

According to the UK Anti-Doping Agency, substances to be considered illegal or dopants, need to make the competitor perform better, need to be a possible threat to an athlete’s health, or violate sport’s spirit. One of the most known drugs scandals was about American cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was a 7 time le Tour de France winner. He admitted to doping to Oprah Winfrey in an interview, he got banned for life, also got stripped from all trophies he achieved. Doping will ruin an athlete’s social reputation as well as losing all sponsors, finally, getting banned, will finish the scandal.

The known ways of catching a cheater, or the most effective, is by practicing blood and urine tests. The most common substances used, as well as considered illegal are, steroids, the human growth hormone, and some antidepressants. Each one of those substances have different symptoms and affects each person differently. Steroids, used among weightlifters and strong players, allows users to train harder, recover quicker, build more muscle, but they lead to kidney failure.

According to the BBC, as many as 99% of russian athletes were guilty of doping in 2016. This russian athletes were not allowed to participate in the Olympics Rio 2016 because they got banned throughout the scandal.  Usain Bolt lost his gold medal in 100m*4 in Beijing because Nesta Carter, a Jamaican compatriot, tested positive for a banned substance. Nesta Carter didn’t just stripped a gold medal from his teammates, but lost all sponsors, all confidence, and ended with a really bad reputation.

It would be an intelligent choice to ban the athletes that use stimulants, due to the fact that it’s the most effective way of cheating in sport’s world and it completely erases sport’s spirit. Some people may think that doping is a correct way of an athlete to win, but it’s the total opposite. Doping changes all the odds and gives advantage to a person that is not prepared or not able to win legally.