speech

IntroStart: How many of you would take a performance enhancing drug if it guaranteed you success at the international level? would you still take this drug if I told you that you would die five years later? well a test was carried out by bob Goldman asking those very questions and 98% of the athletes said that they would take the drug on the first question and over 50% said that they would still take the drug if they were to die five years later. doping is becoming quite a serious problem in the game of sport with thousands of elite athletes each year using chemicals to enhance their performance. I believe that if we want to stop this problem then we have to start with younger generations. We can do this by testing all college athletes for performance enhancing drugs. During my speech I will try to convince you of this by talking about how drugs are visible across a wide array of sports, how dangerous they are and why they are unfair, why athletes use them, what is happening at the college level, and why it should be compulsory.

first topic: drugs are visible across a wide array of sports

doping is slowly but surely ruining the entire professional sports world, it is present in nearly all commonly played sports ranging from cycling, to rugby, and in almost all other professional sports. If it is not stopped soon sports as we know it will be full of chemically enhanced cheats that will cause sports as we know it to collapse in a burning heap. Some recent examples of doping in sports include the scandal involving Valerie adams in the 2010 world indoor champs and 2012 olympics in London got second to the Belarusian nadzeya ostapchuk who was later tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. She was later tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and stripped of all her titles. How many of you can remember the massive doping scandal of the rio 2016 olympic games where Russia had 111 athletes banned because of a state sponsored doping program. Another case of doping was found when the Washington university school of medicine carried out an investigation on 644 retired football players and found that an astounding 52% of them confessed to taking an opioid ( a pain relief drug ) to aid their performance and 71% of those users stated that they misused that drug extensively to enhance their performance illegally. From these examples we can see that ped use is visible across a wide array of sports and how it is becoming a very serious problem.

second topic: how dangerous they are and why it is unfair to use them.

performance enhancing drugs are not only extremely detrimental to your health but they are also starting to give sports such as road cycling the stereotypes of being cheaters. Performance enhancing drugs are commonly regarded as being unethical and unfair, and that is because they are. The athletes that are using them are injecting themselves with chemicals that have extremely dangerous side effects and being as far of ethical as you can get. And to put it into perspective would you inject yourself with an unknown chemical every day? There are many types of doping but the main types and methods that improve your performance and the dangers of taking them are EPO:  Epo or erythropoietin is a hormone injected into the body that increases the reproduction of red blood cells, this means that the amount of oxygen taken in by your body is increased. The side effects of epo are very serious and can lead to seizures and can also increase the chance of heart attacks and strokes. BLOOD DOPING: blood doping is the injection of oxygenated blood into your body to increase the amount of oxygen the person taking the drug is able to take in. Dangers. Risk of blood diseases such as AIDs and hepatitis, more susceptible to strokes and blood clots. Anabolic Steroids: Anabolic steroids are used to increase your muscle mass and to strengthen your muscles. These steroids tho have very detrimental side effects with problems such as liver failure, kidney damage, and an increase in the chances of strokes or heart attacks. From this information we can see how doping is extremely risky with the side effects and it makes me wonder is it even worth it, that little bit of an edge over your opponents compared to the deadly side effects  

third topic: why athletes do it

Athletes take performance enhancing drugs for many different reasons  but the main reason I believe is the competitive nature of sport. How many of you have on the playing field got upset because you lost a game? well that is your competitive nature and it is these elite athletes competitive nature that is leading them on the path of illegally doping. An example that leads on to competitive nature being the main reason that athletes dope is when 8 in ten ex footballers that were questioned in an interview by the Washington university school of medicine announced that they had used a masking agent to dull the pain in the affected area to deal with pain gained from an injury sustained from football. Of these ex players 68% said that reason was down to the NFL’s competitive culture. This fact shows the pressure that is put on the athlete from the competitive nature of sport and how it can force athletes to dope.  

fourth topic: what is happening at the college level:

doping at the college level has only come in to view in the last couple of years. And since then it has grown rapidly and if it is not stopped soon it could take over the entire college sporting world. For example the associated press analysed the weight records of 61000 college football players from all the 120 college football teams and found that over 4700 of them had rapidly put on mass of around 20-25 pounds thats over 11kgs but even more shockingly they found results that showed over 100 football players had gained weight of around 80 pounds that’s over 36 kgs in one year. Either that’s a whole load of junk food or these athletes are illegally taking banned steroids to enhance their performance on the football field. Another shocking study carried out by the Canadian centre for drug free sport estimated that 83000 children between the ages 11 and 18 have used a anabolic steroid in the last 12 months. That is over 10 times the population of Wanaka. From these facts that I personally found surprising at the least. we can see that doping is quickly becoming a problem at the college level and before it becomes out of hand. it needs to be stopped soon.   

fifth topic: why it needs to be compulsory:

Testing for performance enhancing drugs needs to be compulsory at a college level. doing this will mean that we will stop the problem before it will even get the chance to start. This is because we have higher levels of illegal doping at the college level than there is at the elite level. For example  2% of all elite athletes have emitted to having taken any banned substance on the wada or world anti doping agency  list over the last 5 years. However 6.6% of high school students have admitted to taking anabolic steroids in the last 8 years. This information shows how we have more athletes doping at the college level in this case than overall elite athletes. The reason these compulsory tests aren’t in place at the moment is because there is actually some sanctions in place for random drug tests to take place on the odd occasion at large sporting events. These tests are based off the placings and maybe one or two other random tests. The purpose of these is not to humiliate the users but to divert the users away from performance enhancing drugs. But don’t you think that it would be much more effective if it was compulsory for high level college athletes to be tested?   

conclusion:

Although it would be expensive and might not have the highest rate of results i’m sure most of you would rather your tax money was spent on this cause that would drastically decrease the number of not only college doppers but on the entire elite level of athletes. Improving the fairness and quality of the sport as we know it. Than some stupid government plan to change the flag. In my opinion I believe that we should place laws that makes it compulsory for college athletes to be tested for performance enhancing drugs. And after listening to my speech that covered how drugs are visible all around us, how dangerous they are and why they are unfair, why athletes use them, what is happening at the college level, and why it should be compulsory at the college level. I hope that you will agree with me. I believe that if we want to end doping in sport then we have to act now!      

 

One Reply to “speech”

  1. Jack, you have completed extensive research for this speech writing – well done. Just make sure you give context to all of your statistics. I.e. When and where ALL of the tests/experiments/surveys were conducted. Throughout your speech, you include very thought-provoking material, however it would be beneficial for you to “pause” at points in this information and reflect on what this information tells you and the audience. I.e. What lessons can be taken from this information.

    Also, include the audience more widely in your writing: rhetorical questions, personal pronouns, emotive words, statements, anecdotes can assist to connect your information to your audience.

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