While the mainstream use of steroids is for medical purposes, the most controversial is athlete steroid use. Athlete steroid use is often used to help people gain advantages over their opponents. While more athletes strictly use hard work to increase their skills and abilities, sometimes athlete steroid use is the means for gaining such advantages and performance enhancement.

While much of the athlete steroid use occurs in professional and semi-professional athletics, the occurrences of athlete steroid use are now increasing in adolescents (even those in middle school). Additionally, more and more females are participating in athlete steroid use as well.

The reason why athlete steroid use is so popular is because anabolic steroids can be very powerful at building lean muscle mass when taken at high doses. Often times, athlete steroid use occurs when the athlete wants a "shortcut" to getting bigger and better faster. There are even times when athlete steroid use is done through "megadoses" which are even greater than the "normal" yet already increased doses used for body building and general muscle increases. However, athletic steroid use alone cannot guarantee a better athlete since athletic skill is determined by many different factors so it's not a quick fix for people who feel the need to increase their athletic skills.

Athlete steroid use is illegal per federal law, but that doesn't stop its use. Because of continued athlete steroid use, many organization including professional sports, collegiate sports and the Olympics have all banned athlete steroid use.

Because of the nature of the anabolic steroids, athlete steroid use is often seen in sports that require strength and size – since anabolic steroids build muscle mass, it can help athletes in these sports. Other instances of athlete steroid use can be seen in track and field, swimming and body building.