Should Performance Enhacing Drugs be allowed to athletes?

This is my side of the debate on Friday. We cam 2nd. Still don't know whether to be happy or depressed at that.


Disclaimer- This is SO not what I believe. It was just a debate.

From Romans to footballers, from war to sports, one statement has always been the thread of commonality between them. When the odds are against you, a little help is always welcome.

Good morning everyone, my name is Abhilasha Pawar and I really do believe that performance enhancing drugs should be allowed. You see, I believe that all’s fair in love, war and competitive sports is akin to war.

We live in a cutthroat world, where competition is the name of the game among people. Especially for sportsmen. Not everybody in the world has the God given gift of running like Usain Bolt or swimming like Michael Phelps, we have to make do with whatever fate has handed to us and work extra hard on it. Yet, most of us fail because sometimes even that much hard work is not enough. Our dreams of seeing our country’s flag raised and touching that coveted medal with our hands have disappeared because quite simply someone was naturally faster than you.

We are all so quick to condemn those who have been caught taking performance enhancing drugs. We all scornfully say that they did out of a sense of personal glory. Has anyone considered that the reason could be more altruistic? They did it out of a sense of desperate want to make their country proud. To put their country on the map for that particular sport.

And how many of us seated here don’t think of personal glory? How many of us won’t go to any lengths to gain it? If you serve your country along with it it’s a double bonus! Who doesn’t want that feeling to be hailed as one of the country’s greatest? Who doesn’t want to be a hero? Not all of us here are Mother Teresa.

There have been great athletes over time and again who have been tested positive for performance enhancing steroids.  But that never took away their legendary status. It never diminished their natural talent and skill at their game.  Lance Armstrong is still considered the greatest cyclist of all time despite the scandal. Diego Maradona was tested positive for ephedrine in 1994 which effectively ended his career yet he is still one of the greatest footballers in the world and he was the manager of the Argentine football team in 2010.

Plus, the rules for forbidden drugs are different in every country. Some country has a certain drug in every medical store yet in another country it is forbidden. The rules for performance enhancing drugs are conflicting and confusing for the players. In one country the drugs are one man’s meat and in another a man’s poison.

I would like to conclude with quoting Bill Shankly about the importance of a sport “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”

Do marks matter?

This was my side of the Rotary- Landmark debate. My partner and I got thru the regional finals!!

For over centuries, a person’s talents, skills and abilities have been judged right from playschool. People who have judged us over time have changed but the one thing that hasn’t changed is marks.

Good morning everybody. My name is Abhilasha Pawar from St Mira’s College and I am resolute in my belief that marks are important.

Marks are a blessing and a curse to us students. We owe our promotions to higher classes and admittance to colleges to them yet we consider them a necessary evil because much like good things in life it doesn’t come easily.  To reach the very pinnacle of marks, we are pushed to our very limits, every ability, every skill we have is tested and it is through these that we know where we stand in the scheme of things.

Marks are unpredictable. Sometimes we have the good ones, sometimes we don’t. Yes it is disheartening when we get the bad ones but it is those bad ones which push us, motivate us. They keep us on our toes and remind us every day never to get complacent. A lot of people blame the marking system, saying it is unfair to judge people on them. Tell me, what else could we judge them on? We cannot judge somebody who has come in for e.g. for a position in a company or a seat in the college just be looking at them or trusting them by word of mouth. We judge them by their report cards, . Because, unlike people marks are impartial, they tell people what you are without prejudice and in clear and concise terms whether you deserve to be there.

Geniuses like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, yes they dropped out of school. But their marks were good enough to get in the most prestigious college of all Harvard University.  In fact, they both were considered one of the brightest students there.  Hence this proves another point, success today and in the future will be determined by how well you score or grade in the subjects you have studied in. All these subjects whether you decide to study further in that field are essential and higher marks will improve your understanding of the world and everything in it.

Marks also help us to figure out our talents, that special skill which puts us apart from everyone else. How else are we supposed to know what are we good at? What are we horrible at? What needs improvement?  I would like to give my own example here- I was consistently low in my marks in science in high school. It was those marks which reminded me every day that I needed to buck up, and work extra hard to get where I wanted. And in 10^th I was successful in reaching my target. It was also my high marks in English, History and Arts subjects which convinced me that Arts is the field I wanted to enter in 12^th.

I would like to sign off by quoting something which I personally love by Napoleon Hill “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”

Our topic for regionals is Should Performance Enhancing drugs be given to athletes? ITS RIDICULOUS AS HELL!! Unfortunately I have no choice . Worst part I'm FOR!!

The debate's is on Friday. I will put up my speech after that.