Abstract In sports, it’s all about who can be the best athlete. Most would think this would come out to who has the most talent or who is the most disciplined and hard-working. But this is no longer the case for athletics, and sometimes it is which athlete can find the best performance enhancing drugs. Today, sports associations are in a fight to stop performance enhancing drugs from taking over the sporting world. People all over the world question if it is a serious problem or if these associations should just let these athletes get away with cheating. This paper will discuss why performance enhancing drugs are not only bad for the sport but also for the athletes themselves. Success by Hard Work or by Drugs There was a quote by Pearl Bailey that says, “The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self. All sin is easy after that.” Recently in the past decade or so performance enhancing drugs have become a major problem in not only the professional level of sports but also the collegiate and even the high school level. Although some would argue that steroids or performance enhancing drugs have elevated the entertainment value of sports, they have also taken the value of sportsmanship right out of the equation. All sports fans love to see an athlete do great things in their respected sport, but to have to accomplish great things by taking banned substances takes all the credibility out of it. Not only do banned substances take credibility out of the success, performance enhancing drugs also come with many problems: such as health risk, an unequal playing field, and it also goes against what is morally right. People will argue that performance enhancing drugs or PED’s should be allowed in sports. If we the people are free to assume risks that we think are worth taking, shouldn’t athlete have the freedom to risk their health when they take these PED’s? Cigarettes can cause serious health problems for people but there is no ban on them, so why should PED’s be banned from athletes. Some people don’t understand why taking PED’s allows for an athlete to have an unfair advantage but coaching and training is not seen as an unfair advantage. It is not a coincidence that a majority of the professional championship teams are coached by men or women who are widely respected as top coaches in their respected sport. If PED’s are unfair, isn’t it unfair to the teams that are coached by someone who is by all accounts a weaker coach and leader. Competition can be unfair to those involved, but if all athletes are awarded an equal opportunity in taking PED’s then it can’t be unfair. This allows the player the option to determine if the reward outweighs the risk or vice versa. It is common for anyone to always look for a way to get ahead, no matter what the situation might be for. In football, wide receivers often wear gloves on their hands that allow them to grip the ball better, gloves aid the receiver but they are not banned by the NFL because each and every player has the option to wear them deeming them fair. If the sports associations were to deregulate performance enhancing drug use, than each and every player would be on an equal playing field. Also PED’s have added entertainment to the sports because they allow for athletes to be greater than ever before. In 1998, Mark McGwire put together two of the best power hitting seasons ever recorded with McGwire eventually breaking the record for most single season home run totals. The previous record was held by Roger Maris of 61 total home runs 37 ye