Drawing by Stephen Savage

Op-Ed Entry One
Sheryar Ali
6/2/09
AP Lang Entry One

In today’s media, athletes are constantly pressured into using performance enhancement drugs so that they are still in demand by both teams and by fans. The influence that young athletes get from watching these pros have caused a dramatic increase in the usage of illegal drugs such as steroids. GDCADA’s data concludes that there has been a 4% increase in the usage of steroid because of commercial influence to high school senior athletes. “Drawing” is an article written by a high school athlete that talks about the feeling of competing with other athletes who have a clear advantage by using these. He also states the help that the involvement of his mother in his life has caused; she has kept his opinion in check by showing him the disadvantages that using performance enhancement drugs have. The greatest point of his was the thought that all athletes who refrain from using these drugs have the right to feel superior because their skill is authentic and has been earned the hard way. This article depicts the younger athletes who have been educated in the vices of using performance enhancement drugs and shows the influence that the media has on athletes.

Stephen Savage, the author of this article, is a young athlete who is beginning to question pro athletes and their motives for using performance enhancement drugs such as steroids. The author’s style of writing is admirable because he brings in his own personal thought into the matter. Stephen Savage uses the media as the source for his confusion. He finds the increasing number of athletes using steroids appalling because these are people that many look up to as a role model and hero. I think the best part of this article is reading the thoughts that Stephen goes through. He first contemplates the advantages and disadvantages of using steroids and then comes to a conclusion that the decision he has made is the right one. I agree with his opinion on steroids completely because of how closely this topic is to his everyday life. His final point is that not using steroids helps you because it shows you how far you can go by giving you reliable results based on your own hard work and training.