NIKO
When it comes to sports steroids are the ultimate edge. Through the years athletes have tried all kinds of things to be the best. Athletes have used all kinds of substances to improve athletic performance since the beginning of time. The ancient Greeks ate sesame seeds, the Australian aborigines chewed the pituri plant, Norse warriors ate hallucinogenic mushrooms, and most ancient cultures around the world had similar traditions. In the 1860s, a group of swimmers in Amsterdam were charged with taking drugs to speed up their races. Mostly after this most athletes took stimulants to speed them selves up. In 1935, the male hormone testosterone was first produced. During World War II, Adolf Hitler allegedly gave German soldiers testosterone to increase their performance and aggressiveness on the battlefield.
In the 1940s testosterone began to be widely used in competitive sports, but the dangers of loading up on testosterone were not yet clear. During the 1952 Olympics, the Russian weightlifting and wrestling teams dominated those sports, mostly because of synthetic testosterone. Scientists all over the world worked to formulate better performance-enhancing drugs during the 1950s and beyond. There was not much awareness of the dangers such substances could pose to users. By 1958 a U.S. pharmaceutical firm developed anabolic steroids. Soon, the unpleasant and dangerous side effects became obvious, but by then the athletes had access to the drugs.
From the 1950s into the 1970s, both rumors and facts of performance-enhancing drug use combined to increase actual use. Many athletes seemed to believe they had to use anabolic steroids in order to remain competitive. Those athletes who require bulk and strength to be competitive, like bodybuilders, football players, and weightlifters, were the first to abuse anabolic-androgenic steroids. During the 1970's demand for anabolic-androgenic steroids grew as athletes in speed-dependent sports discovered some of the potential benefits to using anabolic-androgenic steroids. One of the most important things the drug allows the athletes to train harder because muscle strains and tears repair themselves faster. All of the steroid use was against the sports organizations’ rules and against the law. In 1964, the International Olympic Committee first published a list of banned drugs and practices for athletes, but the International Olympic Committee did not ban steroids until 1975.
In the 1980's, steroid use continued and was easily able to be purchased in the black market. Some elite-level athletes continued to use steroids. One of the most popular was Lyle Alzado. Who at the end of his career played for the Oakland Raiders during their Championship run. He died from brain cancer because of all the steroids and horse tranquilizers that he used. Many non-competitive athletes and bodybuilders began to use steroids during this period, as well.
The first known case of a bodybuilder contracting AIDS from sharing a needle for steroid use was reported in 1984. In 1988 the sale of anabolic-androgenic steroids for non-medical purposes was illegal under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. In 1990, possession of anabolic-androgenic steroids without a prescription was made illegal in the U.S.