BEHIND THE NEWS SPECIAL: GAMES AND SPORT
The content in these specials will support students from Years 5 - 8 to achieve a range of understandings within an Essential Learnings curriculum. The stories emphasise investigation, communication and participation, encouraging students to be reflective thinkers about a range of issues taught in schools.
State / Territory
Victoria
SA
Outcomes
Level 5
Standard 4
WA
NT
Qld
NSW
Tasmania
ACT
Level 4
Band 4
Level 4
Stage 5
Band C - Junior Secondary
Upper Primary
Lower High School
Curriculum Links
PDH&E/ Health and Physical Education –thinking about risk factors of drugs in sport and developing a critical understanding of the benefits to young people who participate in the following sports: diving, basketball and kite boarding.
Stories cover the following topics:
 Sports drug testing
 Diving girl
 Basketball kid
 Kite boarding
On this Behind the News special: Tiny Melissa Wu makes a big splash in the pool and hitch a ride with the latest sensation: kiteboarding. Hello and welcome to BTN's special look at games and sport. I'm Kerry
Staight.
Almost every time the Olympics or commonwealth Games are on, there are accusations about athletes using drugs to improve their performance. Taking drugs is against the rules, because it gives athletes an unfair advantage, so I had a look into the responsibilities of athletes, and how authorities catch drug cheats.
Sports Drug Testing Kerry Staight, Reporter
Being a BTN reporter requires plenty of muscle. Oh all right I'm cheating and I'm sure I didn't fool you for a second. The thing is some types of cheating in sport are not as easy to detect.
I'm talking about drugs. Sports people want to go faster, be stronger and last longer. Most do this by training harder, but some use banned substances or drugs to give them an edge.
So how do we find the cheats? The answer: tests and more tests. Any elite sports person can be tested for drugs anywhere, anytime.

KRISTEN HEINRICH, ELITE NETBALLER: It's very full on. We have a form we have to fill out every three months that says where we are, in the morning, at night, if you're training, if you're on holidays, if you're eating your breakfast in the morning... they're able to come and test you.
Kristen Heinrich, who plays netball in the National competition, was tested last year.
KRISTEN HEINRICH: They came up to me after the game and told me I'd been selected and followed me around and gave me some water and came into the toilet and watched me urinate in a cup.
Urine and sometimes blood samples are tested for banned substances at a laboratory in Sydney. Last year more than six thousand samples were checked. Only sixteen tests were positive. As you can see from this graph the percentage of positive test results in Australia has dropped a lot over the last fifteen years, as testing has improved.
So how do you know what's banned and what's not? Well each year the World Anti-Doping Agency or
WADA puts out a list of banned substances. It's up to sports people to make sure they know what's on this list. As you can see there are quite a lot of banned substances including, anabolic steroids. These help muscles develop, so they can make you stronger. But they can also cause a lot of problems like acne and liver damage. EPO or Erythropoietin is also on the list. It's a hormone that can boost endurance. But it also increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, if it's misused.
The penalties for taking a banned substance are severe. First time offenders are usually banned for two years - they're not allowed to have anything to do with their sport, even as a spectator. Second time offenders are banned for life.
Looks like I'll just have to put in the hard work to firm up these little babies.
And speaking of hard work, a Brisbane schoolgirl was among the competitors who took to the diving board at the recent Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and as Krista found out, little Melissa Wu was thrilled just to make the team.
Diving Girl, Krista Eleftheriou, reporter
MELISSA WU, COMMONWEALTH GAMES DIVER: It's like a dream come true. It's what I've always wanted to do, make an Australian team and represent Australia. So this is just amazing.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: At just 135 centimetres tall and 13 years of age, this is Australia's youngest and shortest Commonwealth Games team member. She's standing here next to the tallest,
Australian basketballer Lauren Jackson.
MELISSA WU, COMMONWEALTH GAMES DIVER: Yeah, I just want to be treated like a normal athlete not like a little baby so yeah hopefully if I rise to the occasion and people will treat me like any normal athlete.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: Melissa Wu or woodles as her teammates call her is the youngest diver in Australian history to win a national title.
MELISSA WU, COMMONWEALTH GAMES DIVER: I'm really excited, but also really nervous at the same time, but I'm just hoping to go there and have fun and just go for the experience.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: Ten metres may not sound like much, but believe me this is a long way up. If you looked out the window of the third floor of a building you would get an idea of just how high this is. It's very scary. But for Melissa heights aren't a problem.
MELISSA WU, COMMONWEALTH GAMES DIVER: When you're up the top you're thinking about the dive you're about to do, how to make it better rather than how high it is.

KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: Just as well. Melissa dives off this platform 500 times a week and according to her coach being young helps her overcome fear.
HUI TONG, NATIONAL HEAD COACH, AIS: If you're young, you're fear-free, less than when you're an adult. You're learning things quicker.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: The Games will be Woodles first international meet. She's been diving for only four years. Most of her teammates have been training for Melissa's entire lifetime.
MELISSA WU, COMMONWEALTH GAMES DIVER: I'm just a hard worker and I like to improve and I think my coach just expects me to do my best and put all my effort in, so try and just give it my best.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: Another young gun is 17-year-old Matthew Mitcham. He's also making his Commonwealth Games debut.
MATTHEW MITCHAM, COMMONWEALTH GAMES DIVER: Six hours of training a day and six hours of school a day. You've got to fit in eating and homework and your recreation time and stuff like that. It's hard, but so many kids do it.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: So what is it like to actually dive off the platform?
DIVER: You know that everybody's eyes are on you. So you stand there and you tighten every single muscle. And then you jump up. Just for a moment, there's these butterflies in your stomach because you know this one's got to be really good. You're just going through the air, you're spinning and it's an amazing feeling.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: Butterflies hey, we'll I certainly have those. Here it goes.
And congratulations to Melissa who won silver medal at the games. Another rising star who's hoping to succeed in his chosen sport of basketball is Awan, who came from the African country of Sudan and as
Krista reports, thinks he has a good chance of playing in the national league.
Basketball, Krista Eleftheriou, reporter
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: How do you feel when you are playing basketball?
AWAN, BASKETBALLER: I feel good. I feel like I'm flying.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: 14-year-old Awan is already closer to the sky than most. At 193 centimetres tall, he towers over his classmates. Awan eats, sleeps and dreams about basketball. But amazingly Awan had never even played the sport until three years ago.
AWAN, BASKETBALLER: When I lived in Sudan I used to just play soccer I didn't know basketball. What is basketball?
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: Sudan is a country here in Africa. While most Australian kids his age were progressing through primary school, Awan was escaping war, joining thousands of other Sudanese people who walked to refugee camps in the neighbouring country of Kenya.
AWAN, BASKETBALLER: It was really bad. You go to school, they would beat you up up if you were late.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: With the help of United Nations officials Awan, his brother Nhial, and sister applied for asylum in a safe country and three years ago the Australian Government allowed them to come here.
NHIAL, AWAN'S BROTHER: There was one word my dad said to me, Nhial, if you go to America or
Australia talk to your little brother let him go to school and let him play basketball.

AWAN, BASKETBALLER: I love it now I'll never stop. Everywhere I go I hold my basketball. I want to become the second best.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: According to Awan this man, former Adelaide 36ers basketball Mark
Davis is the best basketballer of all time. He is certainly considered on e of the best Australian NBL players.
MARK DAVIS, FORMER ADELAIDE 36ERS PLAYER: He came up to me and we had a long talk about himself and what he wants to achieve and his family situation and I just came to have a personal liking to him.
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: Mark's been providing Awan with some one on one training and mentoring. Perhaps he could help my game too. I think it's a lost cause.
Awan plays for the South Adelaide Basketball Club and attends a specialist basketball school. His teammates and friends believe he has what it takes to become a top basketballer.
ALANA, AWAN'S FRIEND : He's a really good shooter and really good defender.
JARRAD, AWAN'S FRIEND AND TEAMMATE: "I think he'll do really well and play for the 36ers or something like that
KRISTA ELEFTHERIOU, REPORTER: For Awan, it's not just about becoming the best in a sport, but also being able to make enough money to reunite his family.
AWAN, BASKETBALLER: I feel sad. I wish I could see my parents. I would like to play for the 36ers one day.
If I do I'll go to Africa and come back, and see my mum. I will be a happy man.
And we wish Awan all the best. Here at BtN we like to be able to bring you the latest in all things extreme, so Sam just had to be part of the action at the recent kite boarding state titles on the north coast of New South Wales. Be warned - it's full on.
Kite boarding, Sam McMillan, reporter
DANIEL SMITH, KITE BOARDER: The feeling is unbelievable, there's nothing like it. Feels like you're flying. Flying like a bird.
SAM MCMILLAN, REPORTER: When Seventeen year old Daniel Smith is hooked up to a kite he feels as light as a feather.
This is kite boarding or kite surfing, as it's also known, a relatively new extreme sport that's rapidly growing in popularity around the world.
DANIEL SMITH, KITE BOARDER : I used to surf a lot before I started and you don't have to paddle kiting, so it's much better. You can ride the waves and you don't have to paddle out the back and try to catch the waves.
SAM MCMILLAN, REPORTER: This is the first ever Queensland and New South Wales state titles in wave riding - held at Lennox Head on the New South Wales North coast.
ASH WOOLLEY - COMPETITION ORGANISER : This is probably one of the first contests in the country for waves possibly in the world.
The criteria the judges look for are length of rid, so you're using the energy of the wave more than the energy of the kite. You can use the kite to tow you out the back and catch a wave but then you're really looking to stay surfing like a surfer would on the steep section and just use the kite when you need to .

DANIEL SMITH, KITE BOARDER : The weather plays a very big part. You need the right wind, the right direction. If it's offshore you can't go out. You need about 15 or twenty knots to be good. You got about seven, seven different sized kites , a nd you go up bigger kites for little winds.
Bigger boards for lighter winds and little boards for stronger winds. You got surfboards for wave riding, you can use nearly any board, body board you can even use.
SAM MCMILLAN, REPORTER: All this equipment makes kite boarding an expensive sport, but Daniel
Smith has a new sponsorship deal that'll help with the costs. Because it's a new competitive sport, it's wide open for new talent like Daniel to show what they can do.
CERIDWEN JONES, KITE BOARDER of people.
CERIDWEN JONES, KITE BOARDER
:
SAM MCMILLAN, REPORTER: Ceridwen Jones - CJ - is one of only three girls in this competition. She started kiting just four years ago and it's become her life.
:
It appeals to kite flyers, windsurfers, skiers, wake boarders. All sorts
Currently in competition we have freestyle which was what first started. And that's just you're judged on a variety of different tricks and you normally on a flat-water area in a square box format. There's also competitions for speed, for the fastest and then there's border cross as well which is inflatable buoys and that's and obstacle course and that's great fun and there's also the hang time as well so there's so many different aspects of competition. It's really good.
SAM MCMILLAN, REPORTER: Back to this competition - Daniel Smith misses out on the finals coming in third place overall. But his disappointment lasts only for a moment - he has the national titles to look forward to - and more importantly he has the rest of the weekend to do what he likes best.
DANIEL SMITH, KITE BOARDER: Just tricks. The best tricks I can do. Big airs, nice barrels I can do sometimes. All kinds of crazy stuff.
It looks like fun. I hope you enjoyed our look at games and sport. I'm exhausted, see you next time. Bye