20 Athletes Who Were Ruined By PED Use

By Tyler

Athletes Who Were Ruined By PED Use

athletes ruined by ped use — Over the last 20 years, sports have been infiltrated by PED use from athletes, which has helped to ruin the integrity of many men and women, and even sporting leagues for some time. Keeping this in mind, here are 20 athletes whose careers and images were ruined by using performance-enhancing drugs.

20. Mark McGwire

Mark McGwire ped use

20. Mark McGwire

Mark McGwire ped use — Mark McGwire rode PEDs to 70 home runs during the 1998 MLB season and 583 career home runs, so drugs didn't truly ruin his career. But they did ruin his image, and "Big Mac" will never make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame because he had to juice.

19. Lance Armstrong

ped use Lance Armstrong

19. Lance Armstrong

ped use Lance Armstrong — Lance Armstrong was constantly followed by reports of PED use while winning seven consecutive Tour de France titles between 1999 and 2005, but things didn't all fall down until retirement. Now, Armstrong is left with each of these titles stripped and general disgust when greeted by sports fans.

18. Sammy Sosa

Sammy Sosa ped use

18. Sammy Sosa

Sammy Sosa ped use — Sammy Sosa dominated baseball in the late 1990s while on PEDs, but the final years of his career were spent in relative purgatory as he became shamed by this drug use. This isn't to say that Sosa didn't rack up huge numbers and a lot of money, but he lost a lot of respect and trust in the process.

17. Alex Rodriguez

alex rodriguez ped use

17. Alex Rodriguez

alex rodriguez ped use — Alex Rodriguez has been called out for using PEDs on multiple occasions now, and it seems like the guy just can't quit. The result has been that fans in New York don't even like A-Rod anymore.

16. Tim Couch

Tim Couch ped use

16. Tim Couch

Tim Couch ped use — Tim Couch was never a great NFL quarterback, but his career officially came to an end with a six-game suspension for PED use in 2007.

15. Eric Gagne

eric gagne ped use

15. Eric Gagne

gagne eric ped use — Eric Gagne became the rare reliever to win the Cy Young Award in 2003, although he would quickly become an afterthought as the 2007 Mitchell Report showed that he used PEDs.

14. Marion Jones

marion jones ped use

14. Marion Jones

marion jones ped use — Marion Jones was once the greatest female track star in the world, but she lost everything when it came out that she was a PED user. Now, Jones is essentially remembered as a fraud who cheated the system to win in the first place.

13. Shawne Merriman

Shawne Merriman ped use

13. Shawne Merriman

Shawne Merriman ped use — Merriman was wildly successful for the two seasons after his four-game suspension in 2006, but he quickly fell off in 2008 and really contributed nothing of value after this time.

12. Tim Montgomery

tim montgomery ped use

12. Tim Montgomery

tim montgomery ped use — Montgomery was stripped of the 100 meter world record time and other titles after being exposed as a PED user in 2005.

11. Floyd Landis

Floyd Landis ped use

11. Floyd Landis

ped use Floyd Landis — Floyd Landis won the 2006 Tour de France, but he was quickly shamed when a drug test showed that he used PEDs.

10. Ken Caminiti

Ken Caminiti ped use

10. Ken Caminiti

Ken Caminiti ped use — Ken Caminiti became one of the first MLB players to be exposed for PED use, which seemed to make sense with his rather sudden burst of power during the mid-1990s and quick downfall.

9. Justin Blackmon

Justin Blackmon ped use

9. Justin Blackmon

Justin Blackmon ped use — Justin Blackmon has been suspended twice by the NFL in just three seasons for violating the league's substance abuse policy, and at this point it looks like his career will be over before it really gets started.

8. Manny Ramirez

manny ramirez ped use

8. Manny Ramirez

manny ramirez ped use — Manny Ramirez was suspended by MLB for PED use twice in the waning years of his career, which showed that "Manny Being Manny" may have been made possible by a doctor in a lab.

7. Miguel Tejada

miguel tejada ped use

7. Miguel Tejada

miguel tejada ped use — Miguel Tejada was repeatedly implicated in PED use between 2005 and 2013, which essentially took a guy destined for the Baseball Hall of Fame into relative purgatory.

6. Roger Clemens

roger clemens ped use

6. Roger Clemens

roger clemens ped use — Roger Clemens may never admit to using PEDs, but most people believe that he did and his career has been tarnished whether the allegations are truthful or not.

5. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger ped use

5. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger ped use — Nobody believed that Arnold was naturally that big when he was a body builder, and it only made sense that he used PEDs during this time.

4. Rafael Palmeiro

rafael palmeiro ped use

4. Rafael Palmeiro

rafael palmeiro ped use — Rafale Palemiro walked into a U.S. House of Representatives hearing and wagged his finger at Congress while telling them that he had never used steroids. It then came out that Palmeiro surely did use PEDs, and the sports world has laughed him off ever since.

3. Ryan Braun

ryan braun ped use

3. Ryan Braun

ryan braun ped use — Ryan Braun attempted to shame opponents who said he used PEDs, even convincing Aaron Rodgers that he was right along the way. Then things all came down, and Braun has been left to clean up the mess.

2. Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson ped use

2. Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson ped use — Ben Johnson lost an Olympic gold medal because of PED use, and like many athletes he faded away after being exposed.

1. Barry Bonds

barry bonds ped use

1. Barry Bonds

barry bonds ped use — Barry Bonds will likely never come out and say that he used PEDs, but that doesn't mean the public believes him or really wants anything to do with him anymore.

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