Doping Behavior

[Nick Poulin and Dakota]

There is little knowledge about why people choose to take performance enhancers therefore the author attempts to give us a little background and literature on doping behavior as he tries to explain why people dope.
What factors affect a person’s decision to dope or not dope?

Doping and the illegal use of steroids is a major controversy in professional sports and are constantly talked about in the media.
How are steroids threatening sports integrity and why are professional athletes and celebrities held to higher standards?

The choices that we make everyday do not only affect us, but they affect everyone and everything around us. Whether choosing to dope or not to dope, you are either directly or indirectly going to affect the environment.

How does the decision of choosing whether or not to dope affect the environment, and conversely how does the environment play a role in pushing towards the decision to dope or not to dope.?

[Anthony Stanko]

Positive - Good general overview of the article and background of Doping. When i first say your first discussion question, "What factors affect a person's decision to dope or not dope? i was wondering if there would be enough to discuss; however, Your group with the help of Alex kept the topic going for a long time. You also had good viewpoints on the topic and I was able to tell you are both interested in the topic.

Negative - You need to explain more, in the beginning of the discussion you reffered to masculinity very often but you needed to be pushed by Alex to actually explain what masculinity entails. I think you needed to bring up the beneficial aspect of the drugs as it pertains to medical use. There are good effects of these drugs that keep some people functioning normally. I realize the article was strictly speaking of the doping in sports, but it would have been nice to hear the positive effects of not abusing the drugs. You talked about professional athletes and even touched on college athletes a little bit, but i think you should have discussed how many high school athletes dope, because the ratio of high school dopers to proffessional dopers is surprising.

I enjoyed the discussion and I think you did a great job with the topic and keeping the discussion alive.
My grade: B

[Demetri Bartowski]

I definitely liked how the discussion went. Although I may not agree with some of the other classmates viewpoints, it was an interesting thing to talk about, and an interesting article to read. During your presentation, there were times when you kept repeating the same thing over and over, opposed to going more in depth with what you were saying. I agree with Anthony above me when he says that you should have brought up the beneficial aspect of the drugs. You seemed only to state that they made people "more masculine." Overall, it was a solid presentation with a few minor problems. I would give it a B+, I think you guys did very well.

[Oneib Khan]

By far one of the most amazing things in the discussion was when you guys brought up the chart the author used to show the various causes of doping behavior. Just the fact that the chart wasn't just a simple list was good, but then the author goes on to show how all these causes are interrelated.
The one thing that I really wanted to know throughout the discussion was what age is doping more prevalent in. I wanted something more meaty like percentages and statistics. I know it's around the age of 18-24, but how many of those people, how far does the average person dope for, and is it just athletes that dope?

[Nick Sparacio]

Your presentation was pretty good guys. As Anthony pointed out in his comment, Alex had to keep the conversation going at times and continued to attempt to make you guys go deeper into the conversation. People do not just dope for size and looks, in some cases its actually due to their environment and pressure from people around them. Alex had to keep digging and digging to get you guys to try to touch on that important part of the conversation.

The both of you are stellar athletes that have competed at some of the highest levels in your state. It would of been interesting if you both discussed instances where you possibly thought somebody was using PED's in your sport. To further that idea, you guys could of discussed high schools who either test for PED's or not, and what the class' opinion was on the topic. That would of engaged the class more since a good amount of us have participated in some kind of organized high school sport.

A positive point to your discussion was that you guys are both extremely educated in the area of doping. It was beneficial to everybody involved in the conversation to have the discussion led by people who had prior and expansive knowledge on the topic. All in all, a solid presentation guys. I really enjoyed it. But you definitely could of made it great by going into further detail.

[Hunter Rauch]

I liked how you made the discussion about more than just "is it good or bad to use steroids." I was afraid that maybe you'd focus just on the question of pros/cons of steroids, which is kind of a dead horse, already beaten. I was much more interested in your exploration of why people dope, which was good. If I had to find something for you to improve on, it'd be explaining terms. "Masculinity" was tossed around a lot without any real explanation of what it really means. But all in all, once that got cleared up, it was an engaging discussion that lead to some good conclusions about DB.

[Zach Baronner]

I really enjoyed how you guys went into WHY athletes dope. The pressure they have on them and that most of the time they just want to feel masculine. I think that doping in sports is becoming less of an issue than it was the past ten years but it will always be around and it is important to start understanding why people decide to use steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.

[Dreamon]

1. Everything. All factors affect their decision, from the person’s child hood, to high school, to college. How that person grew up, and every interaction they ever had, could lead them to doping. More specifically, I feel abuse from parents, confidence issues, acceptance from family and friends, and the need for attention, are the most prominent reasons.


2. Doping is a huge integrity concern. So many fans and kids, look to these athletes as role models and as their heroes. These players need to understand how the world views them and think before they act. I respect an honest, naturally talented player who had a good run but is no longer on top, a hell of a lot more than the one who is doping to stay or reach at a standard he couldn’t meet with out it.
Sports is about who can naturally work the hardest and show the best results. If the whole concept of natural, pure athleticism is tainted by drugs, then the idea of sports has changed into something entirely different.


3. To Dope or not to Dope? If you dope, you seek to maintain or improve the clean, honest environment you know. But in fact, the experience you will receive is completely different from the one the athlete was looking for. You will not be the same, act the same, and play the same as most athletes’ hope. Not to mention, sooner or later you will be caught, found out, or you will suffer from the choices you made. Where as a clean athlete will have the best possible experience and his environment is less likely to be destroyed or collapse on him.
If the environment a player is in is so demanding and is threatening his future in the sport, the player will resort to anything to stop that from happening. Sports are cruel. It’s a rough industry to be in, because we are all judged by how good we play. Not who we are, when they both directly relate. If a player has a good environment that is supportive and helpful, rather than rough and demanding, he is less likely to dope. Just a kids look to player as role models, players look to coaches and peers. If he/she is in a good place, the likely hood of doping is very small.