Record Breakers or Steroid Takers?

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games were a great time to be a sports fan. Athletes like Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, US Men's Basketball and US Gymnastics all performed tremendously and came home with multiple gold medals to show. About two years about, right before the games began in August, Gallup polled 1,007 adults via telephone about their suspicions of Olympic athletes heading into the games. Most of those polled said they are not suspicious about the use of performance-enhancing drugs when they see or hear about an athlete breaking a world record. About 35% said that they feel suspicious when they see a track and field athlete break a world record, while only 22% feel suspicious when they see a swimmer break a record. Performing enhancing drugs are not a new concern in the Olympic games. They became extremely widespread in the 1980's, mostly with track and field athletes. By the 2000 Olympic games in Australia, many athletes were "doping." Marion Jones, an American Olympic legend from the 2000 games served prison time for lying to a federal grand jury about her use of performing enhancing drugs. She has since been stripped of her medals. Evidence shows the people are still confident that their athlete are not "cheating", especially in Olympic swimming. In all, performing enhancing drugs have continued to be at the forefront of the games and higher rates of testing should be able to provide proof the our athletes are no longer cheating the games.