Vocabulary. Read the article again, find the following words and word combinations in the text and learn their meaning. Use these words in the further discussion of the problem.

To see smth as (inevitable), to develop dependency, the scale of a problem, to launch an inquiry, to seek treatment for smth, ultimately, to be authorized to do smth, to defy smth, aversion to smth, to complicate matters, to recognize smth as (destructive), to undermine smth, to be addictive, to pose a risk, to tackle smth, to attain (glory), to wind up with smth.

Discussion

1. Do you think doping really leads to an addiction or does the article exaggerate the problem?

2. If doping is so addictive, why don’t all top athletes become drug addicts?

3. What is more addictive: drugs or fame?

4. Do you think sports doping can be stopped? Why?

17. Read article 2 and answer the questions given below. While reading find the following words and word combinations in the text and learn their meaning. Use these words in the further discussion of the problem.

Incomparable, to accelerate smth, a decline, to think twice, a stimulant, to raise suspicions, to go to the limit.

Article 2 From Starting Line to Bitter End

His career in cycling has propelled him from the anonymity of local races to the glitter of European and World Championship events as a member of the French national team. The rider, who asks to be identified only as Michel, says his fondest memories are of the “incomparable euphoria of strength and power I’d get finding myself at the head of a tired and flagging pack, knowing I was about to pull away and ride to victory.” But like a growing number of athletes, Michel attained such elation the wrong way. He eventually realized that performance-enhancing substances had ensnared him in the trap of addiction to even worse drugs. Last year Michel, who is 25, underwent several weeks of specialized detoxification treatment for cocaine and heroin addiction developed during his racing career. “I didn’t realize just how big it had become,” he says, “until a doctor warned me if I didn’t get help soon, I’d be dead within months.”

Having embraced doping to accelerate his cycling carrier, Michel slid into an addiction that forced him out of the sport when he was just 23. The races, titles, travel and a spot on France’s national team are now just memories in his daily effort to find happiness in a normal – and drug-free – life.

He describes his decline: “I first began using cortisone to work through injury pain. But because cortisone eats muscle, I began taking testosterone in the off-season to get it back faster. It’s so common you don’t even think twice. Eventually, I got my first dose of pot belge, which is what led me to addiction. It’s got cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and other stimulants in it, and you take it during training or before races when you need a really big boost – and once you’ve made sure you won’t be tested. It gives such a kick, you start using it when you are feeling flat or even just to a party. But it’s a habit that grows fast. The first dose I bought lasted me six months. The last one, two days.

“I started doping more, and training less, and could no longer perform. Once you stop winning, people lose interest in you fast. When I stopped altogether, no one wanted to know me. My coaches, teammates – guys I rode, traveled, doped with – nothing. The only time they might call is if they couldn’t find drugs. Later even that stopped, because no one wanted to be associated with an addict. See, that might raise suspicion about doping.

“I regret becoming addicted, but not doping. It’s a price top athletes pay to go to the limit. You know you’ll pay for it one day, but you just do it. People can’t understand that if they haven’t been there. I miss no longer riding, competing, traveling and I miss the atmosphere and sensations. It’s a unique experience, and if you have to dope to get it, to keep it, that’s what you do. Normal life – a job, house, wife – that’s fine for most people, but it seems so flat to me. I put all I had into cycling. Now I don’t know what I am, or where I’m going.”

(From ‘Time’)

Discussion

1. Do you think Michel would have taken doping if he had been aware of its danger at the beginning of his career?

2. What would have happened if he hadn’t undergone detoxification treatment?

3. Do you think he would have become a drug addict if he hadn’t been injured and hadn’t started using cortisone?

4. Would he have begun using pot belge, when he was in a bad mood, had he known it’s so addictive?

5. What would he be doing now if he hadn’t become a drug addict?

6. Do you think he would agree to lead a normal life (though he says “it seems so flat” to him) if he found a girl he could fall in love with and who would agree to marry him?

7. What do you think his wishes and regrets are?

8. What do you think he could recommend to young athletes? (He could recommend (suggest, advise) that they … . He could think it essential (necessary, advisable, important, desirable) that they … .)

9. What are the wishes and regrets of Michel’s parents?

10. What could they recommend to young athletes?

11. What would they have done if they had known what would happen to their son?