A star athlete can earn a lot of money and a lot of fame, and athletes only have a short time to do their best work. Athletes know that training is the best path to victory, but they also get the message that some drugs and other practices can boost their efforts and give them a shortcut, even as they risk their health and their athletic careers. In great measure, increases in youth drug usage are driven by the belief among young people striving to succeed in sports that it is necessary to use not just to gain an advantage, but also to merely be competitive in today s sporting world. Evidence of this is seen in the recent ban of ten Chinese swimmers and coaches who tested positive for drug use. Coaches like these can play an important role in an athlete s choice to use drugs.
Most athletes demonstrate a high amount of respect and trust towards their coaches.
When they see a person of high dignity using drugs, they tend to think that it is acceptable to display the same habits. Diuretics can be used to reduce the presence of drugs in urine, while e pitestosterone, plasma expanders, and secretion inhibitors can be used during blood testing. Right now there isn t any way to test for these masking drugs. Current systems fail to provide athletes with the assurance that a level playing field exists for those who do not want to cheat. Moreover, many athletes believe that the existing systems are public relations tools, not effective counter-drug programs.