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Sharapova’s Doping Case Explained In Depth
So no one really expected it, but it happened and we have to live with it – Maria Sharapova, the huge star of female tennis has been found guilty of doping. And it’s no herbal tea that she’d been taking, mind you – it’s Meldonium, a drug for heart failure patients that was banned this January. Maria has been regularly drugging herself with Meldonium for a decade and she didn’t know when to stop. Here’s what she said to the public:
“I did fail the test. I take full responsibility for it. I made a huge mistake. I let my fans down. I let my sport down…I don’t want to end my career this way. … I know many of you thought I was retiring. But if I was ever going to announce my retirement it would not be in this downtown Los Angeles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet.”
Via: reuters.com
Good stuff, Maria, you’re quite funny, but is it really the moment to be joking around? Meldonium is no joke, that’s for certain. To quote the BBC:
“[Meldonium is] designed to treat ischemia, a condition where there is a reduction in blood supply to body tissue. It is also said to have benefits for diabetes sufferers. [Further, it serves to augment] mental focus, removing external stress so you feel sharper. There is a slight central nervous system effect, like with stimulants such as caffeine, which gives you a sharper edge.” Sounds more serious than a cup of coffee… The drug has been prohibited as there was “evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance.”
According to The Guardian, there’s no way Sharapova could have come out as drug positive by mistake.
“You could forgive an athlete for tripping-up over herbal supplements, as has happened in the past. But Meldonium is no herbal supplement. Nor is it caffeine, or a multivitamin. It is an ischaemic heart (heart disease) drug, created for people who are very sick. [It is known] that this drug is being used by even one in 50 athletes (and one in 6 in Russia, where it is readily available given its Latvian origin) should highlight the absurdity of it all – a regulated drug, prescription only, being more prevalent in elite athletes than in many elderly, I’ll populations is an untenable situation.”
Via: iran-daily.com
So what’s going to happen to Maria now? One thing’s certain – her huge endorsement deals are going down the drain. Nike has already suspended theirs, although there is hope for Sharapova:
“Last year, Nike signed a deal with Justin Gatlin, the American sprinter who has twice been suspended for doping, which suggests that things are not so cut-and-dry.”
Via: sieldsdesignllc.com
It might be the reason why the star was seen playing beach tennis, still in her Nike gear. Does she think she’ll get away with it? In Vanity Fair, we can read:
“She claimed that it was an innocent mistake: she said that on the recommendation of her physician, she had been taking Meldonium for the last decade because of abnormal E.K.G. readings and concerns about possibly incipient diabetes. She noted that Meldonium, which is known to increase oxygen uptake and endurance, had only become a banned substance as of January 1 of this year and said that she had neglected to open the e-mail from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announcing that it was now prohibited.”
Do you really think that a player with such a huge team of aides around her could have forgotten to open such a crucial mail – or mails – for months? I don’t think so. And after Vanity Fair contacted the pharmaceutical company responsible for the production of Meldonium, Maria’s case got even worse:
“In response to Sharapova’s disclosure, the Latvian pharmaceutical company said patients usually require a four-to-six-week course of treatment that may be repeated twice a year – not a decade of continuous use.”
Even the other stars of tennis don’t want to stick to their own. Everyone’s turned their backs on Sharapova, with some renowned players commenting her situation like this:
“What’s Meldonium?
Hold on. This is weird. Wada issue their list of banned substances and you don’t look? Nor do management?
After the betting revelations, this Sharapova news is a hammer blow to the sport.”
– former British no. 1 Andrew Castle
Via: smoothradio.com
“I’m extremely angry and disappointed. I had to lose my career and never opted to cheat no matter what.i had to throw in the towel and suffer. I didn’t have the high priced team of drs that found a way for me to cheat and get around the system and wait for science to catch up. The responses are exactly what i am talking about. everything based on illusion and lie driven by the media for over 20 yrs. beyond unfair.”
– former US player Jennifer Capriati
Via: abcnews.go.com
So what do we have left now? Probably all we can do is to wait for more information to be released. Until then, let’s hope Sharapova doesn’t end up getting away with long years of cheating.