In partnership with the National Football Museum and the Manchester Salon, we delighted to be staging a one-off debate - part of the years Battle of Ideas festival - on the very topical issue of drugs in sport.

Last year, Russian athletes were given a blanket ban from this summer’s Rio Olympic Games, after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published a damning report on Russian sport – claiming that: “Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme for four years”. However, this ruling was controversially overturned in July by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) leaving Russian athletes free to compete unless their sporting federations said that they couldn’t. The summer proved a turbulent time for the debate over doping in sport with more athletes found guilty of using performance enhancing drugs at the games themselves.

To debate these issues, and showcase the Debating Matters Competition. sixth form students from Hutton Church of England Grammar School, Preston, and Loreto College, Manchester, will be pushed to think beyond the headlines by an esteemed panel of adult judges with content ruling over style to decide the winner.

To read the Topic Guide and prepare, click on this Drugs in Sport link

The event is free, but you should reserve your seats in advance via our Eventbrite page

Debating Matters Showcase Debate: Drugs in Sport
National Football Museum
Urbis Building
Cathedral Gardens
Manchester
M4 3BG

Monday 7 November
6pm-7:30pm

In partnership with

This discussion is a satellite event of the prestigious Battle of Ideas 2016 weekend festival of ideas being held on 22 and 23 October 2016, hosted by the Barbican, London. Now in its eleventh year, the Battle of Ideas festival comprises some 400 speakers at 75 debates and satellite discussions confronting society’s big issues and unresolved questions. It affords the opportunity for some clear thinking, rational debate and agenda-setting - above all, it's future-orientated, whilst retaining a healthy regard for the past achievements of humanity.