Drug testing is a controversial topic in the athletic world. Across almost every athletic platform from professional baseball to the Olympics and even into youth sports, drug testing for PED’s and illegal substances is a necessary topic that needs to be addressed. The demand for the best athletes and the rewards available have led to a cultural shift where peak performance is a necessity; young athletes have to perform at a very high level to receive college scholarships, and the funnel narrows further for collegiate athletes to become professionals and earn contracts and endorsements.
This has led to a cultural shift that places a premium on athletic performance, especially in the physical foundations of athletes such as size, strength, speed, and endurance. Great skill is not sufficient in many cases to receive a scholarship or professional contract. For example, no matter their ability to make a jump shot, a basketball player who is too slow to get open or who cannot jump high enough to get their shot over a defender has a small chance of competing at the next level.
This hyper competitive arena, coupled with exponential advances in training and the supplement industry, creates a tempting and tantalizing situation for these young athletes to use performance enhancing drugs to improve their performance. For many athletes, regardless of their hard work they may just not have the genetics to earn a scholarship or especially a pro contract. It is certainly tempting to attempt to mitigate those circumstances by taking performance enhancing drugs.
However, the side effects can lead to poor health and can even be deadly. At the end of the day, drugs such as steroids are often banned because of the side effects they can have on the body and mind. It is dangerous for athletes, especially teenagers, to use these substances to increase performance. In addition, because these substances are not regulated with the same stringency as other harmful substances like alcohol or tobacco, it is often far easier to obtain them, which can lead to abuse and harmful side effects which can affect the quality of life for these young athletes and their families.
Drug testing is mandated and has become a well known topic for Olympic, professional, and college sports. However, it is not prevalent for youth athletes at the high school level or for aspiring athletes not currently involved in a collegiate or professional program. This is the next frontier and also where performance enhancing substances can potentially be the most harmful. Without strict regulation in this area for youth athletes, many high school programs will be seeking to have their students or athletes tested. It is estimated that most high school athletes use supplements to improve performance. While most may be harmless, like protein powders, many high school athletes will experiment and use performance enhancing supplements such as steroids.
High school athletic programs need to be proactive, and with help from labs such as MedScreens, perform drug testing for their student-athletes. In today’s athletic world the temptation to use these potentially harmful substances is too great to ignore, and parents, coaches and administrators need to be proactive.Contact us for more information on drug testing for athletes, MedScreens is a valuable resource to on this topic and can provide the services necessary to ensure a clean athletic program.