Steroids in Sports — should they be allowed?

TLRD; Yes. We should do everything possible to override nature in favor of nurture if we want to see more Skill vs Skill and less Talent vs Talent.

DISCLAIMER: I do not advocate the usage of illegal substances (steroids and otherwise) in any way. Follow your sports organizations rules and country’s law. This is just an opinion piece on how I think we could improve Competitive Sport.

The purpose of competitive sport is to determine who is the most skillful. Or so we’d like to believe and how we view sport in general. After all, we think it takes an enormous amount of effort to become good at something, so why shouldn’t we believe it’s all about mastering a skill?

Well, to put it bluntly, top athletes are not top athletes because they worked their asses off. It’s because they have an insane amount of natural talent and worked their asses off. If someone asked me to put a number on how much talent matters, I’d say it’s about 95% talent and 5% hard work. Whoa there. Seems a lot, doesn’t it? But it’s true. Look at the best of the best and look at their age. Nowadays, we have teenagers wrecking everyone. So, how can a teenager be as good (or better) as someone who put in 20 years of hard work? There is no secret - mother nature can give some people one hell of a genetic mix.

Yeah, but what can we do about it? Well, nothing. But here’s what bugs me. We do not only secretly accept it’s all about talent, we actively limit the “skill” part of competitive sport. Here’s what I mean.

Even the best natural talent, who is not nurtured properly, will fail to show their best. So, when we see competition, we not only see talent vs talent but how well each talent was developed. Training, nutrition, recovery, and everything in between is extremely important. Who has the best knowledge in that area? Who can make someone faster/stronger/better than anyone else? That’s the true “skill” part of competitive sport. Even though it represents only 5%. My question is: why are steroids not considered part of this?

If we want to see more “skill vs skill” and not “nature vs nature”, wouldn’t it make sense to allow anything that is not random, not innate talent, and requires a tremendous amount of knowledge to produce even better results? Why do we think steroids are “cheating”? How is being lucky because of universe rolled 20 on your Strength, Speed, Endurance, etc… is not more “cheating”? Steroid usage requires knowledge, experience. It requires skill. And it’s not like steroids can override natural talent. Far from it. It’s probably about an extra 5–10% of extra performance. It will never be steroids vs steroids. Average Joe, no matter how much they take, will never catch up with pure talent. That’s a fairytale some of us want to believe.

Let’s face it, competitive sport is not fair. Never has been. Depending on your luck, what nature rolled, depending on where you were born, your success will vary wildly. By introducing rules against something that is not based on luck, we are artificially limiting the “skill” factor. What we should do is exactly the opposite. Meaning, to bring more fairness, we need to not only allow but even encourage any means that could help override that “talent” part. But that’s only if you agree that the competitive part should be more about skill rather than talent.

There are counter-arguments, of course. One of the main ones: the dangers of abusing steroids. Honestly, I don’t see how steroids are more dangerous than anything else. You don’t see people dropping dead from steroid use. Sure, it happens, but usually from underlying conditions or years and years of stupid level amounts of abuse. There are also long-term detrimental effects. But tell me: which competitive sport is healthy? I’ll wait. When you decide you want to be the best of the best, you don’t think “oh, I want to be healthy”. You think “I want to win at all costs”.

Another argument is that “performance is fake” because of drug abuse. That it’s not real, not what nature intended. Well, here’s a tweet that summarizes my thoughts on that:

Now, to make things clear, I’m not talking about allowing everyone to use and abuse steroids. It’s the same as alcohol or smoking - a bad idea to start it when you are young. It is also probably a bad idea to use if you’re not competitive (why risk health?). Other than that, I say: let them do it. Show us what science is capable of. Show us who has the best drug scientists in the world. Show us more SKILL and less TALENT!