The use of performance-enhancing drugs by professional ath­letes not only leads to serious chal­lenges in maintaining a level playing field in competitive sports but also raises broader ethical issues and concerns.

Some of these concerns were highlighted in 2015 when the for­mer world number one tennis star Maria Sharapova was banned from competitive play for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after she tested positive for the banned substance meldonium. The Court of Arbitration for Sport subsequently reduced her sentence to 15 months. Meldonium, an over-the-counter Latvian drug known to dilate blood vessels and increase the flow of blood, may contribute to improving an athlete’s physical en­durance. 

Her case was made more com-plicated by her claim that she was taking the drug for health rea­sons, a claim viewed with skepti­cism among other athletes and ul­timately rejected by the Independ­ent Tribu­nal appointed by the ITF to review the case. Former British Olympic sprinter and world cham­pionship bronze medalist Craig Pickering described the real pres­sure that top athletes can face: 

“I would bet my life savings that Sharapova was taking this medication because of its purported performance en­hancing effects… Athletes are always going to push the boundaries in order to have a chance at success. That is what happens when you in­troduce competition.” 

In competitive athletics, the supposition is that competitors are beginning on a par with each other, which means that no one has an “unfair” or “unjust” ad­vantage over another going into the competition. At the starting line, they arrive as equals in the sense that they arrive with what­ever they were endowed with at birth, and whatever they may have managed to become through practice, hard work, and disci­pline.

Cheating through doping in­volves an attempt to step outside these rules and suppositions, and play a different game, one that circumvents or removes the “on a par” assumption without reveal­ing the fact. In this sense, cheat­ing through doping is wrong be­cause it is a form of lying, a form of presenting one’s initial en­dowment as if it were "natural,” and the result of athletic disci­pline, even though it really may not be so at all. 

Several of Sharapova’s oppo­nents expressed frustration at what they took to be a further injus­tice, namely, that in April 2017, she was given a wild card re-entry into World Tennis Association (WTA) tourna­ment play in Germany. They insisted that she should, at a mini­mum, have to work her way back up from what­ever her ranking had de­clined to after more than a year of tournament inac­tivity. Others, such as fellow player Eugenie Bouchard, perceived the doping transgression as even more serious, and argued that Sharapova should be banned from playing for life:  

“She's a cheater and so to me... I don't think a cheater in any sport should be allowed to play that sport again. It's so unfair to all the other players who do it the right way and are true. So, I think from the WTA it sends the wrong message to young kids—cheat and we'll welcome you back with open arms.” 

Some commentators have noted how event organizers typically like to include big name draws like Sharapova in their line ups, and for­mer number one player Caroline Wozniacki opined that, “obviously the rules are twisted and turned in favor of who wants to do what.” Others have expressed concerns about cor-porate sponsors and adver­tisers con­tinuing to promote high profile sports personalities after they have been suspended for doping, individu­als who may already be among the wealthiest athletes in the world. It seems fair to conclude that doping constitutes a form of cheating not only of one’s competitors, but also one's fans, oneself, and the integ­rity of the sporting activity itself.

Through an honest pursuit of the athletic crown, meanwhile, we encounter the possibility of tran­scending who we are in limited, but important ways. The self-directed training and preparation of the ath­lete helps develop and hone a host of important personal qualities: strength, coordination, endurance, drive, agil­ity, discipline, quickness, vigilance, cleverness, vision, and daring. This draws us towards an authentic per­fecting of our bodies, our character and ourselves — an inwardly-directed order and discipline that arises from deep within — and forms us in such a way that we reach beyond where we ever thought we could reach, and through that per­sonal stretching and growth, come to experience a true measure of human fulfillment. That’s something that doping athletes sadly cheat them­selves from fully experi­encing.

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