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GENERAL ENGLISH · BREAKING NEWS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

OLYMPICS
DOPING
SCANDAL
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1 Warm-up

What do you know about the recent doping scandals in athletics?

2 Key words

Match the terms on the left to the definitions on the right.

1. a sample a. an attempt to prevent people finding out the truth about a crime
or a mistake
2. a cheat b. a person who tells someone in authority about something illegal
that is happening, especially in a government department or a
company
3. a doper c. a small part or quantity intended to show what the whole is like

4. a whistleblower d. a substance, e.g. steroids, taken by athletes to improve

performance
5. a cover-up e. honesty and the ability to do or know what is morally right

6. performance enhancing f. somebody who behaves in a way that is not honest or fair in
drugs order to win something or to get something
7. integrity g. somebody who uses illegal drugs to improve performance in
sport

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OLYMPICS DOPING SCANDAL

3 Find the information

Scan the text on the next page to find the information below.

1. The number of athletes who could be banned from competing at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016:

2. The number of samples from 2008 Games in Beijing that have been retested:
3. The number of years that samples are kept for:
4. The number of retested samples from the London Olympics in 2012:
5. The number of Olympic associations that will be affected by the latest scandal:
6. The date when it was confirmed that Russian athletes were taking performance enhancing drugs:

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OLYMPICS DOPING SCANDAL

Olympics doping scandal: 31 new positive tests

18th May 2016

1.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has
announced that up to 31 athletes from six sports
could be banned from competing at the Rio Games
in 2016.
2.
The announcement comes after the IOC retested
454 selected doping samples from the 2008 Olympic
Games in Beijing. The tests are kept for 10 years so
that they can be retested when advances in testing
are made.
3.
The IOC said the retests focused on athletes who
could potentially start at the Olympic Games Rio
2016, and they were conducted using the very
latest scientific analysis methods. As a result up to
31 athletes from six sports could be banned from
competing at the Olympic Games in Rio.
4.
It also retested samples from the 2012 Olympics in
London and is awaiting the results of 250 retests.
5.
"All these measures are a powerful strike against the
cheats we do not allow to win," IOC president Thomas
10.
Bach said.
"They show once again that dopers have no place to
hide. We keep samples for 10 years so that the cheats
know that they can never rest.
6.
"By stopping so many doped athletes from
11.
participating in Rio, we are showing once more our
determination to protect the integrity of the Olympic
competition."
7.
However, the IOC has not revealed any names of
athletes yet. It added 12 affected national Olympic
associations would be informed in the coming days
and it would reveal names after B-samples have been
tested and individuals informed.
8.
The organisation also confirmed it will start re-testing
samples from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
Last week, a whistleblower alleged Russian secret
service agents helped to protect drug cheats in Sochi,
although the Russian authorities denied the claims.
9.
This latest doping scandal comes only a few months
after Russia and Kenya breached anti-doping rules.
On November 9, an independent commission set
up by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
confirmed widespread use of performance enhancing
drugs by Russian athletes. It was discovered that
doping was encouraged and there was a cover-up
by coaches, doctors, and state and sports officials.
As a result, Russia was banned from international
competition.
Sports minister Vitaly Mutko acknowledged that
athletes had made "serious mistakes". He said this
week that Russia was "very sorry" and "ashamed" of
cheating athletes who were not caught by its anti-
doping systems. But he argued that clean athletes
should not be punished.
Kenyan athletes were also involved in a recent doping
scandal. However, Kenyan sports minister Hassan
Wario is confident the nation will not be banned from
Rio. WADA has written to Kenya, outlining what it
must do to meet the anti-doping code.
Sources: BBC, Reuters, RT, FoxSports

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4 Checking understanding

Read the text again and put T (True) or F (False) next to each statement below. Explain why the ‘False
answers’ are false.

1. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) keep tests for 10 years.

2. All samples from the Beijing Olympics were retested.
3. No athletes from the 2012 London Olympics have been put on the list yet.
4. The IOC has already revealed the names of the athletes.
5. Russian athletes are currently not allowed to compete in international competitions.
6. The Russian athletes who were caught doping were already known to be cheats in Russia.
7. Kenyan athletes have not yet been banned from the Rio Olympics.

5 Find the words

Find a word in the text which means...

1. said officially (verb -ed, P1):

2. waiting for something (formal verb -ing, P4):
3. happening soon (adjective, P6):
4. broke a law or regulation (verb -ed, P8):
5. affecting or including a lot of places, people, etc. (adjective, P8):
6. honest, playing fair (adjective, P9):

Now choose three of the words and make up your own sentences.

6 Reporting verbs

Look at the sentence below:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that up to 31 athletes from six sports could be
banned from competing at the Rio Games in 2016.

The verb ‘announce’ is a reporting verb. A reporting verb is a word which we use to talk about or
report what somebody said. Find six reporting verbs in Paragraphs 7-10 to complete the definitions.

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1. : to say or show that something is true

2. : to say something without proving it

3. : to say that something is not true

4. : to accept that something is true or exists

5. : to give reasons to support or oppose an idea, action, etc.

6. : to describe the most important ideas or facts about something

Now complete the sentences with suitable reporting words. More than one tense is possible.

1. We that there’s a problem and we want to do whatever we can to fix it.

2. She any involvement in the attack.
3. The politician that cuts in education spending were necessary.
4. The company president briefly his plans for the next year.
5. The student that the teacher hit him. But nobody really believed him.
6. I can that the thief was wearing a red sweater.

7 Talking point

Discuss any of the questions below in pairs or groups.

1. Do you think the 31 athletes should be banned from the Rio Olympics?
2. Is it important to test athletes for doping?
3. Are you going to watch the Olympics?
4. Would you like to go to the Rio Olympics? Why?/Why not?

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

OLYMPICS DOPING SCANDAL

Key

1. Warm-up

Encourage a short discussion.

2. Key words

Give examples of each word where necessary. Students can work alone and check in pairs.

1. c 2. f 3. g 4. b 5. a 6. d 7. e

3. Find the information

Students can work alone and check in pairs. Have students scan the article quickly. Go through the answers.

1. 31 2. 454 3. 10
4. 250 5. 12 6. November 9

4. Checking understanding

1. T
2. F - They only focused on athletes who could potentially take part in the Rio Olympics.
3. T
4. F - It will reveal names after testing B-samples and informing Olympic committees.
5. T
6. F - They weren’t caught by Russia’s anti-doping systems.
7. T

5. Find the words

Students can work alone and check in pairs.

1. announced 2. awaiting 3. coming

4. breached 5. widespread 6. clean

6. Reporting verbs

Students can work alone and check in pairs. Go through the answers: confirm, allege, deny, discover, argue, outline

1. confirm 2. allege 3. deny

4. acknowledge 5. argue 6. outline
Possible answers:

1. acknowledge 2. denies 3. argued

4. outlined 5. alleged 6. confirm

7. Talking point

Monitor the activity. Make a note of typical errors and write up useful language on the board.

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