BBC Learnings · Section 20

What if athletes were allowed to take drugs

Sharing your Netflix password, lying about your age or not paying the bus fare

Level: B1 · 107 sentences

Transcript

1. Sharing your Netflix password, lying about your age
2. or not paying the bus fare
3. are a few examples of cheating in daily life.
4. But there's one place where cheating
5. is usually considered wrong and that's sport.
6. Cheating in sport through the use of performance-enhancing drugs,
7. informally called doping, is normally considered wrong.
8. Just ask American cycling legend Lance Armstrong,
9. who is thrown out of the sport for using banned substances.
10. But earlier this year, a sporting event took place
11. which turned the debate about drugs in sport upside down.
12. Here's Asma Khalid from BBC World Service's The Global Story to explain.
13. This weekend, elite athletes from around the world
14. are descending on Las Vegas, Nevada for the first
15. of its kind sporting competition known as the Enhanced Games.
16. It's kind of like the Olympics,
17. but only for swimming, sprinting, and weightlifting.
18. The aim is to break world records.
19. In fact, some of these competitors are former Olympians,
20. medalists, battling it out for money and glory.
21. But there's one big difference.
22. The big difference is that the enhanced games allow athletes
23. to use performance-enhancing drugs that are banned in professional sports.
24. In these games, nicknamed the Doping Olympics,
25. steroids, growth hormones and stimulants are all OK.
26. You're a big sports fan, Neil.
27. Would you enjoy watching a sport where the athletes have taken drugs?
28. No, I wouldn't. I really don't think that's fair.
29. I think we need to know that all the athletes
30. start and compete from the same level.
31. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.
32. I don't really watch that many sports,
33. so I guess I wouldn't notice the difference.
34. But if you're really into sport,
35. you care about the rules, right? Yes, absolutely.
36. And in this episode, we'll dive
37. into the controversial world of the enhanced games,
38. learning some useful new words and phrases along the way.
39. But now I have a question for you, Neil.
40. You mentioned the famous sporting cheat, Lance Armstrong.
41. But how many times did Lance Armstrong win the famous race,
42. the Tour de France, before he was finally caught out?
43. Was it a 5, b 6 or c 7?
44. Well, it was a lot, so I
45. think I'll go for c 7.
46. Well, we'll find out the answer at the end of the programme.
47. Now, it's no exaggeration to say that the enhanced games are controversial.
48. After all, organisations like the World Anti-Doping Agency
49. have spent decades fighting performance-enhancing drugs and sport.
50. Here's BBC Sports editor Dan Rowan
51. on World Service programme The Global Story.
52. I think it's fair to say it's one of the most divisive
53. and controversial events that the world of sport
54. has seen for a long time. It's an event...
55. Where performance-enhancing drugs banned elsewhere in mainstream sport, of course,
56. are actually allowed to be taken
57. by the competitors under medical supervision.
58. Dan Rowan says it's fair to say the enhanced games are controversial.
59. He uses the phrase it's fair to say
60. to introduce a statement that he considers to be balanced
61. and reasonable, that the games are controversial.
62. Dan also describes the Games as divisive,
63. an adjective that means causing a lot of disagreement between people.
64. Much of this disagreement is about the use of performance-enhancing drugs themselves.
65. The Games' organisers point out that all drugs
66. are approved by the US Food and Drug Agency
67. and taken openly under medical supervision,
68. which they say makes them safer
69. than when they are taken secretly at competitions elsewhere.
70. But there are many critics too,
71. as Dan Rowan outlined to BBC World Service's The Global Story.
72. But the critics of course
73. say that this crosses an ethical line,
74. that it sets a dreadful example because it risks normalising doping.
75. It could harm the integrity therefore of sport
76. and it could be dangerous to the health of those taking part.
77. For the Games critics, doping crosses an ethical line.
78. The phrase to cross the line means to start
79. behaving in a way that's not socially acceptable.
80. These critics say the games set a bad example,
81. meaning that they encourage others to behave badly as well.
82. Why's that, Pippa?
83. Well, it's because critics argue the games
84. normalise the use of performance drugs in sport.
85. If you normalise something, you treat it
86. as normal or acceptable when previously it wasn't.
87. But with arguments strongly held on both sides,
88. the debate is far from over. So, Neil,
89. have you changed your opinion after hearing both sides of the story?
90. No, I haven't. I think it's just not fair.
91. And I think if you're not fair in sport, what's the point?
92. Well, let's hear the answer to my quiz question, Neil.
93. I asked you how many times
94. Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France
95. and it was c seven times consecutively between 1999 and 2005.
96. Of course, we now know that there were performance enhancing drugs involved.
97. OK, so now it's time to recap the vocabulary we've learned,
98. starting with doping using banned drugs to perform better in sporting competitions.
99. You can use the phrase it's fair to say
100. to introduce a statement you consider to be balanced, reasonable or true.
101. If something is divisive, it causes disagreement between people.
102. The idiom cross the line means
103. to start behaving in an unacceptable way.
104. If you set a bad example,
105. you behave in a way that encourages others to behave badly.
106. And finally, to normalise something means to treat it
107. as normal or acceptable when previously it wasn't.