English Debate- “Sport Holds a Mirror up to the Worst Parts of Australia”

Sienna- Good morning/evening everyone. I’m Sienna Peters and today I will be joined by
Ben Fox, Chloe Dowd and Jack Kelly to argue about sport holding a mirror up to the worst
parts of Australia in sports. We will be arguing for this statement. Chloe will be talking about
Mental Health; Jack will be talking about steroids and drug use and Ben will be talking about
racism.

Hi, I’m Jack and I will be talking about drugs and steroids in sport.

Alcohol and other drugs are a part of our society. Drugs can be classified in many ways, but
from a sports perspective, they are usually regarded as being in one of three categories:
• restorative drugs such as painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs
• performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids, human growth hormone or EPO
• ‘social drugs’ that are usually broken down into legally available products such as alcohol
and tobacco, as well as a range of illicit drugs including cannabis, ecstasy and LSD Alcohol
and tobacco are both legal substances available for adult Australians to purchase if they
choose.

Professional athletes turn to drugs mainly because of pressure, mental health issues, the
media spreading hurtful false information or being racist. This can lead to them turning to
performance enhancing drugs because they are led to think that it will make them look
good so that they don’t get made fun of. Or, they could take drugs such as ecstasy to make
them forget about all the problems that they are facing. Doing this leads to addictions and
addiction leads to mental health issues and mental health issues leads to the media making
up more terrible thing about you which leads to time off of sport altogether, and if the
athletes aren’t getting better or receiving help during this time... it leads to dumb mistakes
that are made whilst under the influence that can cause jail time or the loss of their career
entirely.

Drug and steroid addiction in sport is an incredibly serious problem that has influenced so m
any different athletes. It causes drama, cheating and the loss of careers. What does this
honestly make you think?
Hi, I’m Ben and I will be talking about racism in sport.

Sport reflects the worst and most disgusting acts of racism as we have seen on multiple
occasions; Adam goods being booed and racially abused and the fact that in 1990 Asian and
dark-skinned fans would not even attend the soccer games due to intense racial abuse can
be easily named.

Why should this ever happen to anybody because of the tone of their skin. At the end for
the day...we’re all just humans. After those two examples (one being older and one much
more recent) nothing has changed to fix this. It is a disgrace that this is still happening in
sport and that nothing has changed over many years. Do you really want people to be
treated differently because of their looks and who they are? There are many disgusting acts
of racism in sport that gives Australia a horrible representation and an idea to the rest of the
world that we are people that don’t believe in equal rights, do you honestly think that that
behaviour is ok?

To conclude these reasons on why Australia condones behaviour I would like to share a fact,
think about this. Racism in sport is the number 1 reason fob violence and verbal abuse in
sport.

Good morning/evening, I’m Chloe and today I will be talking about how mental health in
sport holds a mirror up to the worst parts of Australia.

For so long in the world of professional sport and non-professional sport, the word ‘mental’
has traditionally only been followed by the word ‘toughness’ to create the slogan “mental
toughness” ... until recently, when the word ‘health’ has come into play. “Mental health”
issues or illnesses in sport are often caused by verbal abuse from the crowd, the media,
pressure to perform well, not enjoying the game anymore, standards, stress and
overworking yourself.

Among professional athletes, data has shown that almost 35% of elite athletes suffer from a
mental health crisis. With so many different pressures on them to perform, as well as the
rest of their public lives, being a professional athlete is incredibly stressful. Keeping healthy
relationships and finding time for yourself in between a crazy schedule can get to be so
much for just one person. Does knowing that information really want people to pursue sport
as a career? For example, here are wise words from successful athletes who had run ins
with mental health issues.

After a bout of depression, Dwayne Johnson aka ‘The Rock’ (actor and wrestler) said “I
found that with depression one of the most important things you could realize is that you’re
not alone. You’re not the first to go through it… I wish I had someone at that time who could
just pull me aside and say, ‘Hey, it’s going to be okay.'”

Ian Thorpe (5x time Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer) was surrounded by people but had
intense loneliness and said “It’s like a weight is pressing down on you. There are days when
you just can’t get out of bed. You cannot face the world. You tell yourself simple things like:
‘Just get to the kitchen and get a glass of water.’ But not being able to do something so basic
is frightening.”

Ricky Hatton (a professional boxer) who had multiple suicide attempts said “We’re out of
our comfort zones with depression. I certainly was and whenever I have bad days now, I
speak to someone to get it off my chest. I have no shame telling that and that’s why I’m
here today.”

These comments alone made by athletes about mental health issues give huge reasoning to
believe that sport holds a mirror up to the worst parts of Australia. This can cause terrible
conditions such as severe mental health issues which can (in worst cases) lead to other
horrible and life changing illnesses and health problems that alter and effect peoples
relationships, occupations, lifestyle and quality of life overall.

Sienna- That concludes our debate argument, these facts prove that sport brings out the
worst in people, and that it contributes to bad incidents with players, staff members,
umpiring scandals and many off ground fights. There are also multiple people on social
media posting their negative opinions on players and these issues can bring many bad
effects to players mental health.