Issues In Sports

In sports, most athlete’s want to be the best of best and some will try anything to do so. The determination to win will drive an athlete to use drugs. For instance, famous American track runner Justin Gatlin. He was/is a successful 100m and 200m runner, even made it to the Olympics. He was then banned for a year for using the drug “Amphetamine”. Most athletes that do drugs usually isn’t satisfied with where they are in the sport or how their body is and they have a “win-at-all-cost” attitude. Some even tried lifting more weights or training more but they still weren’t pleased. An athlete taking steroids to win is the same as a student taking focus pills to pass a test. Then both have the same effect, after meeting their limit what is there to do? Now at this point, they just have drugs in their system which could effect them negatively if it wasn’t a prescribed drug. Then at the end of day, they’d get caught anyways. Whether it’s in the same week or a few weeks, the truth will come to light and they’ll face the consequences, like Gatlin.

Website Used:

https://young.scot/get-informed/national/athletes-banned-for-steroid-use

https://europepmc.org/article/med/8947428

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1544319115318124

Some sports require physical contact like football, soccer, and wrestling. Despite the fact that all of these sports have padding uniforms to decrease the risk of a serious injury, there’s still of a risk of getting hurt. With sports like football and soccer a injury could be life or death. For example, former football player Howard Glenn died from a neck injury during his football game in the 60s. Although, the sport gained more body protection throughout the years, that doesn’t dismiss the fact that these sports are still dangerous. Instead of add more and more padding to the uniforms, football officials should at least change the rules in the game that could prevent more death like this. Many people believe injuries only happen in these sports but no. A sport like volleyball or basketball can have it’s cons too. In volleyball, a player could get ligament sprains, concussions, muscle strains, abdominal strains and more. While basketball players could get the same injuries but more ankle or leg bruises. Overall, the sport world should be more conscious about the risk of these players and how serious these little “sprains” can be.

Websites Used:

https://www.livescience.com/8650-hard-hitting-sports-hold-dangers-teen-athletes.html

Click to access NCAA_W_Volleyball_Injuries_WEB.pdf

https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/85341

One on going issue in the international sport of tennis is discrimination towards women or simply people of color. According to “www.theguardian.com”, in the year 2018 alone, over 70% of the men’s top 200 gained more money than the women. Although critics argue that their pay isn’t determined by their gender but their audience, the gap between women salary and men salary is too large. Fortunately, prize money varies with each round in tennis or each tennis open (Australian open, French open and/or US open). Unfortunately, salary wages isn’t the only big problem in tennis. Another issue in tennis is undercover racism. In the 2018 U.S Open, Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka were playing against each other for the finals. During the game unruly calls were made from the emperor and some say to caused Williams to lose. After the controversial match, a comic was drawn about Williams.

Many believe this cartoon was down right racist and it was over dramatic about the whole situation. Others pointed out the fact that the artist made Naomi Osaka, a Japanese-Haitian young lady, Caucasian with blonde hair. While social media went insane over this cartoon, some tennis official called it “Non-racist”. Despite the fact that tennis been around for decades and black woman or woman in general have been able to play for decades also, the sport itself still has it’s hidden loops.

Websites Used:

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/25/697672690/controversial-serena-cartoon-ruled-non-racist-by-australia-s-governing-press-bod

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47352854

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2018/jul/14/tennis-pay-gap-shouldnt-be-gender-based

Being a student athlete myself I personally know the struggle trying to balance school and after school sports. A student athlete either worries about falling back in class because of sports or not being a good player on the field/court because of school. The typical life of an student athlete is school, practice/game, late homework,sleep and repeat. Some sports even come with morning practices meaning waking up around 4:30 -5am for practice then going to school. That then leads to the student being tired in school. Then on top of that, missing one assignment or being behind in class takes of a lot to replace. One zero in the grade book could take about four 100’s to replace. More than that, most teachers don’t understand the importance of sports to students. Some teacher’s dismiss the fact that a student athlete is mentally and physically working out everyday for hours, some assume putting school work first is easy when it isn’t. Although being a student athlete can be extremely stressful, it helps students from middle school to college how to wisely use their time. Also, being a student athlete comes with financial aids and sometimes free tutoring (if you have time for it).

Websites Used:

https://www.hercampus.com/school/st-law-u/pros-and-cons-being-student-athlete

http://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/mind-body-and-sport-risk-factors-sport-environment

https://www.scholarshippoints.com/campuslife/pros-and-cons-playing-sports-in-college/