In the world of professional sports, the detection and prevention of performance-enhancing drug usage continues to be an issue. While most athletes are tested and caught, some slip under the radar, competing as superhumans against the ordinary individual. Some believe it’s a test of science, while others compel athletes to stick to pure strength and determination. Some athletes at Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) are taking up a stance against it without ever experiencing or seeing doping during their adolescent life.
“I think it ruins it. In high school, it’s mostly supposed to be fun, especially at the level I’m at, it’s not supposed to be taken that seriously, and the people who [use enhancement drugs] are ruining the entire atmosphere of high school sports,” water polo and swim athlete Dean Liddell ‘27 said.
Performance enhancement drugs, otherwise known as ‘doping’ in athletics, are used to boost an athlete’s physical capabilities or overall performance. While some of these drugs aren’t necessarily banned in the legal sense, they are shunned within the Olympics and general sports. However, as of Dec. 2025, Athletics Integrity Unit Chair, David Howman, confessed that “dopers at the elite level are evading detection”. In this news blowout, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been called to attest against doping in its peak.
As pressures rise for high school athletes looking to compete at the collegiate level, temptations also peek into the picture for athletes. How far can an athlete push themselves to be great until they feel that it is not enough? Performance-enhancing drugs have, unfortunately, created an alternate way to ‘be great’ beyond common human ability.
“In our world right now, if you want to be an athlete in college, or a competitive athlete in high school, it’s a very tempting risk to take to find alternative ways of enhancing your body; that’s the unfortunate situation we live in,” said Jason Dinkler, Foothill Tech’s athletic director.
“I think with social media pushing out highlight reels of athletes, everybody is going to compare themselves and be like ‘I wish I was that good’,” said tennis player Paris Nguyen ‘27.
Technologies continue to advance, revolutionizing testing techniques and drug enhancements, so the question arises to the surface: Will performance-enhancing drugs continue to surpass testing technologies? The future of athletics lies in the athletes themselves, who doping may affect.
Some high school students may be more aware of steroids in sports than others, but it doesn’t change the fact that, as student-athletes, most don’t realize the risks these drugs pose to their health. Some high schoolers may only see these doping scandals on TV, where anything can be omitted or put in a different light; however, the opinions of these young athletes are still important, accentuating their influence on the future of sports.
“I don’t think [doping] is a good thing, but I think that sometimes the officials can get carried away. There’s one example this year in tennis, [Jannick] Sinner, who was the world number one at the time, got caught with trace amounts. Nothing to actually enhance his performance, and he was out for three months. He didn’t miss any grand slams, luckily, but his ranking dropped. He lost points, no practice matches. It was kind of a harsh penalty for his trainer just making a stupid mistake,” said tennis player Charlie Powers ‘27.
Performance enhancement drugs can be used for medical reasons when approved, but in Jannik Sinner’s situation, it was supposedly accidental through the treatment of a small wound by Sinner’s physiotherapist, which contained the banned drug, clostebol.
“CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) has very specific rules in California about performance-enhancing drugs and what it does to your ability to remain a competitor… it makes it a very complex environment when you don’t know if your competitor is taking those advantages and you’re trying to stay honest about it,” Dinkler said.
On the other side of the coin, there are athletes out there who would willingly take performance-enhancing drugs in sport and, through this, are willing to participate in a ‘new and improved Olympics’, the Enhanced Games.
“A global movement that develops scientific insights, medical discoveries and record-breaking sports events to unite humanity and inspire scientific innovation,” reads the Enhanced Games claim of “who we are”.
This Enhanced Games in 2026 aims to allow athletes to, at their own risk, take drugs from the WADA-banned list with medical supervision, and compete against other athletes with this same understanding.
“Part of our liberation is the liberation of information. Bodily autonomy is a fundamental human right. Adults with free, informed consent should be able to do with their bodies what they wish. Individuals should be able to make risk decisions for themselves,” said the founder of the Enhanced Games, Aron D’Souza, to the BBC.
“I don’t think [doping] should be allowed, but… If people start doing it, it’s fine, but it’s their choice if they’re an athlete to join the enhanced games. I think it should not be allowed by the Olympic Committee, the professional sports leagues, the NCAA, stuff like that,” said Parks Riley ‘27.
Even if some of the students at Foothill Tech are against or have their reservations about sports doping, there is still a group of people who do and who may not know the risks they are taking.
“I don’t think it exists in Foothill [Tech] tennis specifically … but a lot of kids go to the gym, and I think they may use [drugs] so they can look bigger, and I think that’s so common in high school kids, so to know the side effects of everything could help stop the usage,” Nguyen said.
Sports maintains its popularity among news and general life as the competitive drive in athletics and people’s love for it continue to impact the population. However, it is unknown how the use of drugs and the technology surrounding it will impact this heavily influenced world. Foothill Tech Dragons have an idea of these banned sports strategies, but most have no idea how much they could change sports’ morals and values. Is it an important addition to the sports world, prioritizing the pursuit of superhumanity, or is it an abomination to clean athletics?
