Speeches
Speech by Mr Masagos Zulkifli BMM, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Home Affairs, at the Youth Olympic Games Anti-Doping Seminar 2009 on Saturday, 14 February 2009, at 8.30am, at SYOGOC Headquarters
Mr Rob Koehler,
Director, Education and Programme Development,
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
Mr Shin Asakawa,
CEO, Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA)
Dr Patrick Goh,
Chairman, SNOC Anti-Doping in Sports Commission
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning.
It is my pleasure to be here at this Youth Olympic Games Anti-Doping Seminar. The first ever Youth Olympic Games, to be held in Singapore in the year 2010, represents a milestone in the sporting world, and a milestone for Singapore.
The world of sports has produced many great, talented and inspirational figures through the years. It is unfortunate that in the last few decades, several athletes, who were held up as role models, have fallen into disgrace when they were exposed as doping cheats. The integrity of sports has been tainted by the scourge of doping. Certain sports and events have been so badly tainted that the winners of such sports are usually greeted with some skepticism. Many honest athletes were cheated of their moment on the victory podium because they were beaten by someone who had used drugs to win.
Maradona could have been one of the greatest football players ever, if not for a life plagued by controversies. His legacy would forever be tainted by his abuse of drugs. In 1991, he was suspended from football for 15 months after failing a doping test for cocaine. Three years later, he was also sent home from the USA World Cup for using the stimulant ephedrine.
More recently, we know of Marion Jones, an athletics superstar who took the world by storm in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. She was the first woman to win five athletics medals — three of them gold — at a single Olympic Games. In 2007, Jones was stripped of her medals and subsequently, she was sentenced to six months’ jail for lying about her steroid use and involvement in a fraud case. All her results since September 2000 were wiped from the record books. Her relay teammates were stripped of their medals as well.
For these once-great sporting heroes, their fall from grace is often more spectacular than their meteoric rise. Not only have they let themselves down, they have disappointed and betrayed the trust of their teammates, countrymen and supporters.
Sports should be a positive and enriching force in our lives, engendering passion and pride, and producing sporting heroes who can be good role models. Sports teach us valuable lessons about fair play, teamwork and planning, mental and physical preparation, and victory and defeat. It teaches us about the human endeavour and striving to give one’s best.
True victory in sports is one which is fairly fought and won on a level playing field, and not one which is won through the use of substances to enhance performance. The use of such substances is called doping and doping is cheating.
Singapore is committed to keeping the Youth Olympic Games free from doping. As we prepare to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games next year, we want to make a clear stand against doping. Today’s event, and those of the next four days, will represent a major step in this direction. National Sports Associations will have a key role to play, as will the 50 volunteer Doping Control Officers who will be undergoing formal training over the next few days. It is timely that the World Anti-Doping Agency has chosen to hold its South East Asian Regional Anti-Doping Education course in Singapore.
Anti-doping efforts are integral to promoting fair play and the ideals of the Olympic Movement. Such efforts are relevant to our young people as we educate, engage and influence them to adopt and live by the Olympic Values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect. Inculcating the right values and attitudes about sports and fair play in our youths, whether they play a sport or not, may well be the key to a future where doping is no longer a problem in sports. To this end, I urge our schools to explore issues and values relating to anti-doping as part of the Olympic Education Programme.
I am pleased that the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee has included anti-doping as one of the topics under the Culture and Education Programme during the Youth Olympic Games. I understand that during the Games, interactive activities will be developed to help spread the message of anti-doping to the athletes.
I am happy to learn that many of you here today are volunteers. The Youth Olympic Games would require about 20,000 volunteers to help organise and run the Games. One such area is in doping control. For those who are doping control officers, you play an important role in ensuring that doping control procedures are followed as required by the International Olympic Committee. I encourage you to learn as much as possible about anti-doping measures during the seminar.
I wish all participants a fruitful time of learning and discussion over the next few days.
Thank you.