We’ve all been there—you’re watching an important sporting event, rooting hard for your team or your athlete, or waiting to be part of history as a world record gets broken at the Olympics. When it happens, it’s an amazing moment of adrenaline and endorphins and bonding with people all over the country, or even the world, as everyone jumps up off their couches, screaming along with all the people in the stadium, because a human being just did something that no other human being has ever accomplished and it’s rare and incredible!
Until you find out the athlete cheated by taking steroids. The moment of triumph is suddenly meaningless. You feel angry and probably disgusted, too, because someone who you and maybe your kids or your little sister totally idolized turned out to be a cheater. You feel like a jerk for having been filled with such joy and pride at that person’s accomplishments when they didn’t really deserve the accolades. They cheated—the worst possible thing an athlete can do, which we all learn at about age 6 in the schoolyard.
And yet, dozens of athletes have been caught using steroids, and not just in East Germany. Plenty of American athletes have been caught doping, even recently, when they knew better. Some have been punished, but others go on to continue playing, taking multi-million-dollar salaries with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Here are some of the biggest American dopers (and alleged dopers) in sports.
The Tour de France
Is there anything more exciting than when an underdog with little hope of placing ends up creaming the elite to 
win big? That’s exactly what happened in the 2006 Tour de France, when cyclist Floyd Landis beat out many superior athletes to win it. Oddly, though, he won by kicking butt on the hills—exactly what was said to be his weakness. As it turned out, Landis had three times the normal amount of testosterone in his blood and was kicked off the team and stripped of his title.
But, Landis wasn’t the only doper on the U.S. team. Tyler Hamilton eventually admitted to doping, too, then testified before a grand jury that American hero and seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong was also a total juicehead. In fact, three Armstrong teammates have accused him. Nothing has been proven yet, but the investigation continues and Armstrong’s wins are heavily tarnished.
Track & Field
American track star Marion Jones was a highly celebrated, multiple-record-breaking athlete, practically dripping in medals, Olympic and otherwise. Unfortunately, even after lying to two grand juries about steroid use, it came out that she’d used steroids before the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. She was stripped of all medals won during the year 2000 and beyond—including the five Olympic medals—suspended for two years, and sentenced to six months in prison. Jones retired in a cloud of shame in 2007.
Baseball
Baseball may be the biggest steroid sport of them all, at least among popular team sports. So many idolized baseball players have been busted for doping that it hardly seems like a competition anymore. What’s the point in watching, when half the teams could be cheating?
Barry Bonds was one of the first big baseball steroid cases. Bonds was considered to be one of the greatest players of all time, winning seven MVP awards, 14 All-Stars, and hitting an insane 762 home runs during his career. Then, it came out in the same investigation that caught Marion Jones that he’d been using steroids. He may legitimately have been one of the best players baseball has seen, but we’ll never know for sure. Although he became a free agent after the scandal, nobody will touch him.
Speaking of baseball all-stars, fireball-throwing Roger Clemens is probably the best pitcher in baseball history, with seven Cy Young awards, 354 career wins, and a career ERA of 3.12. Though Clemens swears he never doped, his trainer admits to having injected him. Clemens’ perjury trial for lying to Congress about his steroid use commences this month. 
Other baseball players in the steroid hall of shame include Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco, the latter of whom wrote a tell-all admitting to his steroid use and pointing the finger at many others in baseball, including Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Ivan Rodriguez, and Juan Gonzalez. And, of course, who could forget Yankee star Alex Rodriguez, the highest paid baseball player of all time? Twelve-time All-Star, three-time MVP, with a career batting average of .306, A-Rod is the youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs. His fans were devastated, however, when he admitted to having used steroids during the 2001-2003 seasons (in 2003, A-Rod and a mind-boggling 104 other major league players tested positive.) Because MLB didn’t have a steroid policy in place until 2004, A-Rod will suffer no consequences for doping—except the disappointment and disgust of his fans.
2 comments
Male Enhancement Drugs Can Get You Busted for Doping | Naked Law by Avvo.com
[...] doping is a matter of cheating. Athletes do it because they think they can get away with it and will do whatever they have to for a win. In the [...]
Johnny
Shame on you in this country you are innocent until proving guilty. Armstrong's wins are not heavily tarnished just because a bunch of his cheating teammates got caught. When people crash and burn they try and take as many people with them if they are guilty or not that is a proven fact. The writer of this article must be from France and is clearly upset that a American owns their sport which should be renamed to the Tour De Lance!