The opposition’s First Opening Speech on Doping in Sport: “We should permit the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport”

NO!

Lara Kuehne: Today we are here to talk about why PED’s should not be permitted in sports. First I will talk about the serious health damages that PED’s do, then I’ll go on talking about the world anti-doping Agency, lastly I’ll talk a little about unfair play and the joy in playing and watching sports.

Sure performance-enhancing drugs are great; they allow us to strengthen our muscles, bones and tendons, enabling us to train harder, longer and with less pain. But these are only the short-term effects.

In the long term, they don’t only damage your physical health, but also your mental health. There are a lot of different drugs athletes use these days, but the three main ones that I am going to talk about include: Anabolic Agents, Stimulants and Narcotic Analgesics.

Anabolic agents (like Steroids) help build muscle faster, so this drug is mainly used by weight lifters or in game sports like rugby. In the long term they cannot only lead to liver damage but can even lead to liver cancer. It can also lead to males having a reduced sperm count which, therefore, highly lowers their chance of baring children, for females, on the other hand, it leads to them adapting male features like an increase of body hair or the deepening of the voice. On the mental side of things they lead to aggression, which doesn’t only put the athlete in danger but also the people around him/her.

On to Stimulants, Stimulants make the athlete more alert, speeding up the brain and body. Mainly short-distance sprinters use stimulants, as it gives them a chance to react faster to the gun shot at the start of the race, also making their muscles contract faster. In the long term they can lead to Asthma or even heart failure due to the irregular heartbeat that is created. When over-using Stimulants it can lead to severe headaches, insomnia and paranoia.

Finally Narcotic analgesics, which basically consist of painkillers. They mask pain, helping injured players perform better and without pain. In the long term this leads to breathing problems and it’s also extremely addictive, which eventually leads to depression and possibly suicide.

Let’s move on to the WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency. Their mission is to lead a collaborative worldwide movement for doping-free sport. According to this organization, a substance should be banned if, quote, “it has potential to enhance performance, represents potential health risks or violates the ‘Spirit of Sport’”.

Now imagine you are in a stadium and you’re about to watch a game of rugby. On the left side, you see really strong players, with huge muscles, looking like they’re going to explode from muscle. However, this team doesn’t look happy or excited, they just look serious and concentrated. Whereas on the other side there is a team that doesn’t look quite so strong, but their facial expressions show joy and excitement. Now we can most likely conclude that the bigger, stronger team is going to win, without the other team even having a chance. Would you find this game interesting to watch? Are performance-enhancing drugs really worth taking?

I’m going to leave you with that question in your mind and my partner will then continue with the Spirit of Sports, the political side of things, fairness in sports and the cycle of using PED’s.

Thank you for listening.



November 2015

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