Shadowing Practice: WHEN ATHLETES GET CAUGHT CHEATING! - Learn English Speaking with Video
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With athletes and teams having so much on the line at big sporting events,
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sometimes athletes try to get ahead by doing things that are against the rules.
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And well, the consequences of such actions can be huge if they get caught.
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During a close
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Warriors vs Pelicans game, a bizarre moment happened when at a really convenient time for the Pelicans the lights went out,
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which even made the commentators question if there was some sort of sabotage.
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The Pelicans trying to turn that's a different way to defend
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Curry right there is turn the power off.
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Okay, maybe this goalkeeper took it a little too far.
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But at the Libertadores Cup, the goalkeeper from Ecuador actually pretended to be unconscious.
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And when the medics went to check on him, it was clear he was making it up and decided just give the act up,
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which costed him a red card.
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Not sure how the referees caught this, but a golfer got caught cheating in a really smart way when the ball was in the sand,
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and he took advantage of a practice shot to move a
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bit of sand off the area surrounding the ball in a very sneaky way, which took several minutes to confirm it happened.
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An interesting turn of events during a play at the semi -finals of Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City happened
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when in the fourth quarter four flops occurred in a single play.
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A sneaky attempt from Tony Romo at a football game happened
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when he kicked the ball a few inches over so he can get the first down, which obviously didn't work.
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Okay, this might be one of the worst dives in football history, but when a player was pretending to be injured,
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it kind of looked like he was breakdancing.
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Okay, this wasn't an athlete cheating,
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but a fan with an amazing aim managed to throw his hat in away that made one of the players trip,
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causing them to lose the play.
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A kind of embarrassing moment for Bradley Beal happened when he attempted a crazy flop, which even made his opponents applaud his efforts.
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Not sure what this cycler was thinking, but a very evident cheating attempt was caught on camera
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when during a bicycle race he decided to hold onto his team car.
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A joke that cost an NFL player $20 ,000 happened when he jokingly gave the referee $1 as a bribe,
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which the league didn't find funny at all, and decided to fine him.
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A marathon runner was stripped of his third -place medal at the Kielder Marathon on after
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he took city buses to get a massive advantage.
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And well, he tried arguing that it's not cheating if you keep running in the bus.
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Sometimes viewers have a better eye than a referee.
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A completely unbelievable moment at a golf tournament happened when golfer Lexi Thompson slightly moved the ball when marking position,
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and no one realized except one viewer that decided to email the tournament officials, which made her lose the tournament.
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With Formula One being the most viewed motorsport event and being backed by people with huge amounts of money,
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teams often have a lot of pressure to win races,
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and the engineers are pushed to attempt to bend the rules to get a bit of an edge.
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A known cheating attempt was done
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when Williams' team fitted a big water tank inside the car that was supposedly used as a braking fluid,
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but in reality they just dumped the water in the first few laps
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and got away with having the cars being under the required weight.
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Even though technically there isn't a rule against this, a tennis player had a kind of annoying strategy of screaming really loudly each time
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she hit the ball in order to put the other player off.
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For those who don't know, during a volleyball game if the ball hits the floor, then the point is lost for the team.
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But somehow a volleyball team managed to get away by just keeping it going.
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And since the speeds of the ball are well over 60 miles per hour,
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it's almost impossible to tell real -time the player actually touched the ball or not.
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With more than 1 billion people tuning in to watch the World Cup that happens every 4 years,
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it can be a lot of pressure for players.
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A funny acting fail by Brazilian footballer Rivaldo happened when he was hitting the knee with a ball,
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and he acted like it was a hit to his face.
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During a hurdle race when one of the runners misstepped in one of the hurdles, he simply knew there was no way to come back.
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A very obvious attempt at cheating from a volleyball player happened
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when he quite literally grabbed the leg of one of his opponents under the net.
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When a Twitch streamer was playing CSGO in competitive while live streaming, she forgot to switch her hacks off,
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which was a software that allowed her to see players through the walls, which is obviously against the rules.
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And well, when she realized what was going on, she claimed it was just a glitch.
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Yo, you guys, um, do you guys ever get that, uh, that weird glitch in CSGO where it shows your rank, it shows everyone's rank?
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Because my game, I played the other day, I played the other day with Rock and he got that and now I have it.
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Despite the incredible technology of VAR systems, some really obvious fouls still go unnoticed.
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For example, at a tennis match when Murray managed to get a point, despite obviously crossing the net with his racket.
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The incident happened in Miami in 2014 and I guess the Hawkeye replay system doesn't cover obvious like this.
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A fast -acting moment from a soccer player happened
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when he realized he wasn't in the best position to be in
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and pretended to get hit in order to get a penalty.
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A sneaky attempt by coach
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Mike Tomlin to cheat was
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when he put himself slightly on the field to slow down an opponent and let his team catch up to him,
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and well, it costed him a fine of $100 ,000.
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During NBA games, it's common for a team to huddle in order to make a strategy or share important information.
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During the Warriors vs Pelicans Game 5, Draymond Green was caught sneaking into the Pelicans' huddle, trying to listen to what was going on.
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A crazy turn of events that happened right after the 2014
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Winter Games was when 117 Russian athletes got disqualified
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when it was found out that there was some tampering going on with lab tests related to doping,
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and this caused a ban in all athletes from Russia.
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This might be one of the most advanced forms of cheating,
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but a cycling champion was caught mechanically doping when officials noticed she was hiding a motor in her bike.
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The way it worked was she was able to turn the motor on
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and off with a Bluetooth button hidden in her bicycle handlebar.
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Okay, not 100 % sure why Edmund Sumner thought this might work, but during a Pacers vs 76ers game, Sumner made a pretty dramatic flop.
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Not sure how he thought he was going to get away with this,
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but an Australian cricket player was caught on camera tampering the ball with sandpaper
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that he had in his pocket in order to get an advantage.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “WHEN ATHLETES GET CAUGHT CHEATING!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: happened, player, ball, cheating, caught. This video has 85 sentences and 1244 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:45. The speaker talks at a steady 142 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cheat verb | /ˈt͡ʃiːt/ | To violate rules in order to gain, or attempt to gain, advantage from a situation. |
| athlete noun | /ˈæθ.liːt/ | A participant in any of a group of sporting activities including track and field, road running, cross country running and racewalking. |
| pretend verb | /pɹəˈtɛnd/ | To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance. |
| opponent noun | /əˈpəʊ.nənt/ | One who opposes another; one who works or takes a position against someone or something; one who attempts to stop the progress of someone or something. |
| referee noun | /ˌɹɛf.əˈɹi/ | An umpire or judge; an official who makes sure the rules are followed during a game. |
| volleyball noun | /ˈvɒlibɔ(ː)l/ | A game played on a rectangular court between two teams of two to six players which involves striking a ball back and forth over a net. |
| flop verb | /flɑp/ | To fall heavily due to lack of energy. |
| sneaky adjective | /ˈsniːki/ | Elusive; difficult to capture or observe due to constantly outwitting the adversaries. |
| rank noun | /ˈɹæŋk/ | A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers. |
| sand noun | /sænd/ | Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in… |
| tennis noun | /ˈtɛnɪs/ | A sport played by two players (or four in doubles), who alternately strike the ball over a net using racquets. |
| runner noun | /ˈɹʌnɚ/ | A person who moves, on foot, at a fast pace, especially an athlete. |
| marathon noun | /ˈmæɹəθən/ | A 42.195-kilometre (26-mile-385-yard) road race. |
| bicycle noun | /ˈbaɪsɪk(ə)l/ | A vehicle that has two primary wheels, one behind the other, a steering handle, and a saddle seat or seats and is usually propelled by the action of a rider’s… |
| dope noun | [doʊp] | Any viscous liquid or paste, such as a lubricant, used in preparing a surface. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get away with verb | To get away, or escape, taking (something) with one. | |
| act up verb | /ækt ˈʌp/ | To misbehave; to cause trouble. |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| get ahead verb | To advance toward success. | |
| get away verb | To move away (from). | |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be injured · was caught · was stripped |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | those who don · walls, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, wasn't, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/, marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: unconscious /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəs/, sabotage /ˈsæb.əˌtɑʒ/
- Long words — get the stress right: technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/, unbelievable /ˌʌnbɪˈliːvəbl̩/, supposedly /səˈpoʊ̯.zɪd.li/, commentator /ˈkɑmənˌteɪtəɹ/, disqualify /dɪsˈkwɔləfaɪ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cheat, athlete, pretend.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.