drug testing. But the safety of the athlete's health is being neglected. Drug use has led to an increased number of deaths and suspensions of athletes. Also, if this continues all athletes someday will have to choose whether to compete at a world-class level and take drugs, or compete at a club level and be clean. In sports, athletes, coaches and trainers will try their best to find a way to reach the top level. They not only search for a way to enhance performance but most of them have aspiring Olympians to train. It is no secret that performance enhancing drugs have been used by Olympians for decades, or that athletes will do almost anything to gain a competitive edge. (Drugs in Sport) According to Dr. Charles E. Yesalis, a professor health and human development at Penn St. University, "drug use among athletes has gone dramatically up in recent years. Athletes also are becoming more venturesome about mixing different types of drugs. One reason is that new drugs keep coming on the market, and some turn out to be of help in giving athletes a competitive edge. Sports officials feel they have no choice but to try to combat drug use in sports with every legitimate weapon at their command. They are motivated in part by concern for athletes' well being. Most performance-enhancing agents have side effects that can pose an immediate or long-range threat to health. But the officials are driven by self-interest too. If the public perceive major sports to be hopelessly drug-ridden, attendance and television viewership is likely to plummet. And thatcould lead to financial ruin for athletes and promoters alike. The monetary stakes are higher today than ever before. Many of the top athletes damned very high salaries, and a select few demand huge additional sums for product endorsement. Pro team owners, meanwhile, are constantly scrambling for more income from broadcasting and other sources to meet their massive payrolls and still turn a profit. A series of drug scandals might well cause media outlets and corporate sponsors to re-evaluate their financial commitment to sports. Similar trends are under way at the Olympics. Relaxation of International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules on amateurism has opened the games to athletes whose chief livelihood is sport. This, in turn, has brought increasing emphasis on winning and breaking records. Sine there is often little difference among top athletes in any sport, even a fractional improvement in performance may be decisive in championship events. Gaining the slight competitive edge can lead to substantial increase in performance and endorsement fees. Many athletes have concluded that the quickest way to reach these goals is through performance-enhancing drugs. (Athletes and Drugs) Sprinter Ben Johnson's ban from the Olympic games, in 1988 set off a flurry of bureaucratic activity and official hand-wringing, but a decade later it is clear that Johnson's fall from grace was no turning point, merely part of a continuum and, in some insidious way, inspiring. How else can it be explained that in 1995, when 200 elite----mostly American----athletes were polled on whether they woul

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Approximate Word count = 2106
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)