Steroid use rumors and steroid bans are nothing new when it comes to the Olympics and it looks like the Beijing 2008 Olympics will be no different than the past Olympic games. Olympic history is peppered with steroid abuse stories including the very famous stories on Ben Johnson in the 1988 Olympics and more recently Marion Jones.



This years Beijing Olympic games has seen dozens of athletes from around the world being banned for steroid use and doping. The U.S. swimming team has had several of it's members investigated. Greek track and weighlifting athletes have been under the microscope since the spring with several being banned from the 2008 Olympics. Both the Romanian and Russian track teams have seen members banned from this years Olympic games.

Searches in Google for anything related to steroids and the Beijing 2008 Olympics and you'll get back tens of thousands of results. Steroid issues are alive and well when it comes to Olympic athletes even though the Olympic committee has vowed to eliminate them from the Games. When it comes to steroids the Olympic games are no different than any other sport or league. Athletes will do whatever they feel is necessary to win, it's simply a condition of the competitive spirit.

It's obvious in this day and age that when thousands of world class athletes are brought together that steroids will be in the limelight. Everyone loves to point out those athletes they feel are 'cheating' by using steroids, but is it really cheating if everyone is doing it. Athletes are competitive by nature and willing to do anything to win so why would you expect them to forego steroid usage if it will improve their performance.

I imagine that steroid controversies will continue for the duration of the Beijing Olympics. It would be no surprise to see athletes have medals revoked after winning at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. What do you think? Should steroids be allowed at world level competitions? Is it necessary for athletes to use performance enhancing drugs to put in the best possible performance or is it better to have natural athletes showing what the human body can do on its own?

There's no doubt that unless we come up with some way to discover all performance enhancing substances that steroid abuse will continue. And you can also bet that new ways to increase and enhance performance will be discovered and used by athletes in the future.