Drew Persinger
Period 2A

Written 4 Way Speech
Bang! The gun goes off starting the men’s 1600 meter race at the NCAA outdoor track championships. I stood nervously against the stadium railing watching as my cousin ran with the front pack, knowing that this was one of the most exciting and important collegiate races he would ever run in. He was sitting in first place during the last 200 meters looking fatigued but comfortable. You could see the determination in his eyes as he started to break away from the pack. At the final stretch he was edged by another top competitor and lost the race by 0.7 seconds. I watched him untie his green Nike racing shoes and walk off the track with his head hung low, obviously disappointed in his performance. He had been working for years to win a
NCAA championship and was upset that his hard work hadn’t paid off the way he wanted it too.
He said that A year later the athlete that beat him was found ineligible for the outdoor track season for using sports performance­enhancing drugs. The athlete admitted to using the drugs most of his time competing in college track. When my cousin found out he was angry, but more disappointed. He was angry that he had lost the race. He was disappointed that people in a sport he loved so much were willing to cheat and lie to come out on top and how many others were willing to use the drugs. Athletes using sports performance drugs to gain advantage in competition ruin the integrity of athletics. PED’s should not be allowed in sports because it cheats the process of finding the best team or individual in a sport.
Is it true? The issue concerning PEDs touches all athletes and sports fans. News coverage often reports professional athletes that have tested positive for the drugs. Local athletes like
Chris Davis and Haloti Ngata have both tested positive for PED’s. Oriole’s hitter Chris Davis was suspended for 25 games after testing positive for amphetamines. While Ravens player Haloti

Drew Persinger
Period 2A

Ngata was suspended for the end of the 2015 football season. These athletes are making a statement that they are okay with cheating. That statement represents their team, their individual sports, and the city of Baltimore. Their use of PEDs displayed that they were not confident in their ability to perform well and were afraid of losing. Ngata and Davis showed that that they didn’t have enough respect for their competitors to play fairly. The use of steroids can have serious health repercussions. Danish cyclist, Knut Jensen, died on Aug. 26, 1960 at the Summer
Olympics in Rome during the 100km team time trial race. He collapsed during the race and suffered a fatal head injury. His autopsy revealed use of a PED called Ronicol which caused his heat to beat irregularly and fail on him. Athletes using PEDs are documented in professional sports teams, collegiate teams, and Olympic teams.
Is it fair to all concerned? Using Performance enhancing drugs is not fair to all concerned. It undermines the purpose and integrity of the sport. Athletics is a test. It is a test to discover who is the most talented and who has worked the hardest at a sport. An athlete taking drugs is cheating that process. Athletes do not take the drugs to level the playing field but to gain an advantage. They are taking opportunity away from other athletes that have been working to achieve the same goal without the help of drugs. Some people support the use of drugs in professional athletics as long as the use is known and noted in any type of record books. The point of having record books is to record and remember the most talented athletes of all time.
There would be no reason for athletes using drugs, known or not, in the record books because it is not clear whether there talent or the drugs were responsible for the record or success.

Drew Persinger
Period 2A

Preventing athletes from using PED’s will help maintain the integrity of athletics