Were the 1990s the Era of PEDs?

Were the athletes from the 1990s a bunch of cheats?  Dopers? Steroid users?  As we get further and further away from the 1990s and early 2000s, we are hearing more and more about athletes who used performing enhancing drugs to gain an advantage in competition.  This was not confined to baseball.  Performance enhancing drugs were seemingly being used in all the major sports.  Let's take a look at some of the more prominent sports athletes who have used performance enhancing drugs:

 

 

1.) Lance Armstrong was recently stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles by the International Cycling Union because of the use of performance enhancing drugs.  The 41-year-old cancer survivor is just the latest in a line of top athletes to see their reputations disgraced.

 

 

2.) Roger Clemens was probably one of the best pitchers of his generation.  He did not come under fire until 2 years after his retirement when a book implicated Clemens as a steroid user.  Clemens testified to the United States Congress stating that he "never touched the stuff."  He was subsequently charged with perjury and acquitted, though the general public believes that he is guilty.

 

 

3.) Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, & Sammy Sosa were likely the poster children for steroid use in professional sports, until Armstrong's recent admission.  These 3 baseball players broke numerous homerun records because of their PED use.  They are probably the most disgraced and disliked athletes on this list next to Lance Armstrong.

 

 

 

4.) Alex Rodriguez is a superstar athlete who fans hated BEFORE it came to light that Rodriguez tested positive for PEDs in 2003.  And after several sub-par postseasons with the New York Yankees, perhaps Alex's playing days are coming to an end soon.  At least Alex still loves him some Alex.

 

 

 

5.) Marion Jones became the first female track and field athlete to win five medals in a single Olympic games. The Olympic Committee found the Jones had tested positive for PEDs and stripped her of all her medals. Jones recently tried a comeback within the WNBA, but has failed to regain her former stardom as a track and field superstar. "Once the world's biggest track star, said The Associated Press, 'Jones is now just a disgraced drug cheat.'"