When Sharapova called for a press conference night in a Los
Angeles hotel on Monday many were expecting her to announce her retirement. It
was a shock for all when she in fact announced that she had failed a drugs test
following her loss to Serena Williams at the Australian Open earlier this year.
The substance in question is meldonium.
Sharapova claims to have
been taking this drug for the past 10 years on health grounds after it was
prescribed to her by her doctor, her family doctor. While she is making an attempt to distance
her taking the drug as a choice, I find it hard to believe that the world’s
highest paid female sportswoman would not check with her professional team doctor
what she can or cannot take as a professional athlete. Her agent says that
Sharapova is so meticulous that she peels the label off water bottles in case
she is photographed with a product she has not yet endorsed. So can this really
be just an honest mistake?
Meldonium was developed to
aid patients with diabetes and heart problems. It aids the blood and oxygen
pumped around the body and supplied to the muscles. In terms of athletic
performance, it can aid in stamina and endurance. We do not know yet how often
Sharapova took this drug but it is prescribed for 4-6 weeks twice or thrice a
year depending on the severity of the patient’s illness. Nevertheless, there is
no reason, or no reason that we know of, for a young, healthy and fit
sportswoman like Sharapova to take meldonium unless it was to gain an unfair
advantage over her opponents.
It was on WADA’s watch list throughout 2015 and was illegal
as of January 2016. All athletes were notified in September last year that
meldonium would be made illegal so there is no excuse for continuing to take
it. Sharapova’s excuse was that she did not “click on the email link” and that
she only knew it by the name of
mildronate. For a professional athlete of her stature, she will have to do
better than “my dog ate my homework Sir”.
Furthermore, the fact that
since the recent drug scandal in athletics, nearly 750 Russian athletes have
tested positive for this drug in the last 6 months. Can this be just a mere
coincidence that Sharapova was prescribed meldonium, or is this part of the
bigger picture in tennis and athletics? Meldonium is produced in Latvia and
only available in Eastern Europe. The fact that it is not legally available in
the United States where Sharapova has lived for the last 21 years only adds to
the speculation that she is guilty.
The reaction from past and present players in
the tennis world has been interesting. Serena Williams described how courageous
Sharapova was by coming to the media and admitting her mistake. However Sharapova could have done this to
cover her own back and gain confidence from the world rather than let the
rumours and gossip swirl around until the truth finally came out. Virginia Wade described Sharapova as being
careless while Dick Pound described it as reckless beyond belief.14 time Grand
Slam champion Rafael Nadal argues that Sharapova must be punished, like any
other athlete would, and be made an example of in an attempt to dissuade others
from cheating. Nadal himself is a man under
media constant scrutiny and speculation as a doper and drug user.
It seems as though those who believe, or at
least want to believe, that Sharapova is innocent are still living in a dream
world where Lance Armstrong didn’t dope. And while it is impossible to predict
what the future holds for Sharapova, it is unlikely that she will feature at
the Rio Olympics this summer. This will be a blow for Sharapova having won
silver at London 2012, but her current priority is that she has the chance to
play
Written by Tom Lowndes
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