Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Moving the goal posts
No great fan of the noisy Sharapova, but does it ever occur to all the pundits jumping up and down on her head that the reason she didn't check the list of banned substances was because she didn't have to.
She was doing exactly what she'd been doing legally for a decade. Nothing had changed from her perspective. She hadn't changed a thing.
If the drug she was on had been considered iffy, then it would have already been dealt with years earlier.
Then someone moved the goal posts.
To put it into context. Imagine you had been going about your business and then wake up and find eating wholemeal bread had been made illegal six months earlier. I mean, it's not something you expected.
And then find that you are held liable for eating the bread for the previous ten years as if you already knew it was dodgy.
Sharapova has paid the price for being set in her ways, that's all.
🙂
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Yep, I don't like her at all, but it seems to me she is been punished for something she didn't do. OK, she probably should have known that drug had been banned, but it has nothing to do with the decade of playing before that when it was an acceptable treatment.. It's only the last few weeks she shouldn't have been taking it. Pretty harsh on her I think.
I certainly don't think Sharapova can be criticised or condemned for using the drug prior to 1st January 2016, as it was not on the list of banned substances, and she asserts she was using it for health benefits in accordance with her doctor's recommendations.
Of course, the WADA list of banned substances can't be expected to remain static else it could give rise to all sorts of abuses. To Sharapova's credit, she's been open about failing the drug test and proffered her reasons for not noticing the change of status of the drug; mitigating factors to be considered by the ITF tribunal, and I think the tribunal, and not the pundits (or us for that matter), are best equipped to make judgment.
WADA only banned it after becoming aware of a large percentage of sports people using it. I'm sure they were using it for its performance enhancing abilities.
Tennis has always been lax on doping. I really doubt she was that poorly to require ten years of medication.
It's her job to make sure she's not using banned products. I'm pretty sure wada issues updates.
Less than her commercial sponsors obviously who have jumped ship like rats who know its sinking fast, bit odd that.
If it was just a genuine mistake its going to be a costly one!
they made it clear that all titles etc pre 1st January were to stand as it wasnt banned them..
Everyone of them were told on 1st January 2015 that this drug was being investigated in 2015 with a decision being made on 1 January 2016.
Anyone with that much money and =a high paid manager would of checked and known that it was now banned from the 1st January 2016 and stopped taking it.
She just relied on the fact that she wouldnt get caught or that tyennis would hush it up as they arent big on doping...
She has used several different excuses as to why she hadnt realised it was banned.........and she was not even open and honest about her reason for taking it.....
Just because she is pretty and popular is not a reason to go ahhh love her...she didnt know...
She said she first took it 10 years ago, not that she has been taking it constantly for 10 years.
And the 4 to 6 weeks course of treatment may be repeated 2 or 3 times a year according to the manufacturers.
I think it has been an oversight by her "team".
She has admitted it was her responsibility and she should have known.
She got caught cheating, that's all there is to it.
Why would a sponsor hang around an athlete who wasn't going to be playing again for some time? why would a sponsor align themselves to someone who cheated?
There's little doubt she was taking it to improve performance, but it wasn't banned so no problem. No different to Mo Farah taking high doses of caffeine before a race. Some might consider it ethically dubious, but that's the way professional sport is. Lots of athletes were taking the same stuff as Sharapova, if the testing they did before adding it to the banned list is to be believed.
When it was added to the banned list there was plenty of warning. Seems there have been quite a few positive tests since the ban, Sharapova merely being the most high profile, which only proves that intelligence and common sense aren't rife among sportspeople and their entourages.
of course she admitted it.she was caught redhanded......
this drug is the biggest export in its country of manufacture...yet it is not approved by most countries health boards....so it is used off prescription by sportspeople the whole world over to enhance their performance......and they all had good warning that their time of using it has ended......
with access to the top nutritionists and the level of sport she plays.....I cant believe that people believe that she was taking the drug for some medical reason ( prevent diabeties) when thousands of other sportsmen and women are taking it to enhance their performance......
She will be banned as she used a drug on the "do not use" list.
The PR machine is slick and to her credit she is using it well. However a top sportsperson should be aware of everything they use, or pay someone to do that for them. The "I didn't read the e-mail / label / I had no idea" is no excuse. Just tell Alain Baxter.
I agree all her titles should stand as they were all won legally.
As for the sponsors, they do not have a choice really
What is unclear is what is performance enhancing and what is not. Double caffeine shot before a 5k anyone? Legal now but if it enhances perfomance should it be permitted over specific levels?
Nike have done exactly that with Gatlin.
The guy who came up with this particular medication even said himself it would improve athletic performance. If he'd stuck it in a sugary gel and sold it in running shops he'd have made more money from it and nobody would care. Sell it as a drug for heart conditions and it's a big no-no.
It would have been better if Sharapova had got up and said that she'd been taking a legal drug to improve performance for 10 years, and made a mistake by not checking the new list. Then there might be a proper debate on where this line between what it's OK to take and what isn't OK needs to be drawn.
WADA pre-announce list additions each September to take effect from the following January. All sportsmen and women should be checking that list including looking at alternative names for each of their drugs. This is the same drug that Aregawi and some other Ethiopian runners have been busted for. Aregawi just said she don't know how it got into her. I'd put her response in the same category as Sharapova's myself.
I'd love to hear an update from Sharapova as presumably she now has an urgent need for a replacement angina/dodgy ECG drug, right?
Dustin, I think caffeine was on the banned list pre 2006 but at a really high dose level.
All good points. She is a professional athlete, and as such, it is her responsibility to check that any medication she takes is allowed. The rules on what's allowed and what's not are clear - the fact that they change just means she needs to keep abreast of this.
It used to be in Scotland that you could have a pint and then probably be ok to drive. Lots of people did this regularly. Now the alcohol limit has changed, and it's probably not ok. Doesn't mean anyone who had a pint a few years ago and drove should be charged retrospectively with drunk driving, but it does mean that once the law changed, there's no defence for having that pint & driving.
Not the best analogy, but you get my point - I've got no sympathy at all for her. With what's at stake, she should have stopped taking drugs when they became illegal, simple. Whether or not she needs them for "medical" grounds is very dubious, but if the sports authorities (not just tennis) want to eliminate doping, then they need to make the penalty / risk more than the reward. Lifetime ban, no excuses. It's not like she is skint and even if so, this wouldn't stop her from having a career, it just wouldn't be as a cheating athlete. And now off the soap box...................
Mo Farah must be shitting himself in case Quorn gets banned.
I imagine that Sharapova had checked the medication was ok to take. But after a while it wasn't obviously something which constantly needed checking.
I mean she checked it in, 2006 ok with WADA,
2007 ok with WADA,
2008 ok with WADA,
2009 ok with WADA (getting the idea yet?)
2010 ok with WADA
2011 ok with WADA (getting bored?)
2012 ok with WADA
2013 ok with WADA
2014 ok with WADA (what's the point of checking anymore, it's not on the list)
2015 ok but WADA has a look, but it's ok.
2016 WADA bans it.
Obviously.
A bit like the critics always without exception checking the lights, tyre pressures and water levels on their cars each and every trip.
Of course you do.
🙂
I wonder if WADA ought to look at their procedures in announcing changed to the list of banned substances.
So far dozens have been caught since January, seemingly unaware of the changes.
Are they more interested in catching a big scalp than making athletes aware?
They know there is a list each year.....sharapova is saying she had the email about the changes and read that there new drugs on the list.....but she didn't open the attachment to find out which ones.....
That seems so strange for a professional athlete.......what more can the authorities do....they let athletes know that all changes are from 1st January each year...they send a personal email....no doubt it's also plastered on their website.... But the idiots claim they forgot to check...and neither did all their highly paid team..
If you have checked it ten years in a row, nothing ever seems to change and you aren't taking anything new I can understand why she wouldn't worry about this. (and many other athletes it would appear).
Someone on her team and her doctor should have definitely been aware.
It just seems they didn't really bother publicising changes.
I know, they send emails, put updated list on website etc
Everyone will know now.
I'm surprised at the sympathy on here for her. It's ethically dubious (but by no means uncommon) to take performance enhancing medication that's not on the banned list.
There was 12 months notice it was going to be considered for the banned list and then 3 months notice before it was actually banned. Lots of time for her family doctor to knock up a dodgy therapeutic use exemption.
Yeah, like i ever watch tennis! But am now wondering, if I'd put subtitles on, would they have read "Extremely annoying high-pitched scream (Sharapova)"every time she hit the ball?
At the very highest level, lots of sportsmen / women will do anything they can to gain an advantage. If there was a medication they could take which gave some benefit and wasn't illegal, then you can be sure they would all take it - those who didn't would be at a disadvantage. I'm sure most athletes will take every advantage available to them, right up to where the rules permit. They know what they're taking, and the only thing they need to do is make sure they fall on the right side of the rules. Where the rules change, they need to make sure they're still compliant. I would imagine that MS has people who do this for her, but there is so much at stake that she should have made sure she was "legal", even if it was "boring" for her.
She needed to either not take medication or having chosen to take it, made sure it wasn't banned. When it was banned (and she had advance notice of this), she should have done something about it. No sympathy from me at all.
Isn't it amazing that someone so poorly can take part in elite level sport.
She's a pro and needs to be professional about what she's taking.
EPO wasn't banned before it was banned after all....
Remember reading about Mark Cavendish going apeshit at one of his assistants who hadn't updated his schedule so that the out of competition testing team would know where he was at any given time. Seems like a small error to the assistant but has such ramifications to the athlete, think he then appointed an ex-pro or similar as it would be someone who understood the situation better. Wondering if it was one of MS's minions who screwed up and she's taken the hit. Not excusing her in any way but it may have happened that way I guess.
she had the email and read it but didnt bother opening the attachment
Luckily, doping is handled in terms of "strict liability", it's entirely irrelevant if you knew or not, ignorance is no defence- just like if you're caught speeding.
Sharipova makes so many millions annually that she could afford to pay a small team of doctors to just keep abreast of the regulations regarding her various performance-enhancing substances.
The fact that it's highly fishy in the first place has absolutely no bearing on anything. She did it.Strict liability, remember?
She could afford to hire experts to warn her when to stop doing it as the regulations changed. Something went wrong with that process.
Finally, for people wailing at the injustice of it all:
"That this drug is being used by even one in 50 athletes (and one in six in Russia, where it is more readily available by virtue of its Latvian “birth”) should highlight the absurdity of it all – a regulated drug, prescription only, being more prevalent in elite athletes than in many elderly, ill populations is an untenable situation. Even the possibility of risk is grounds to ban it."
..from here, which also contains the amusing line:
"Perhaps in Maria Sharapova’s world, an email alert from Wada or the ITF concerning doping is the equivalent of the spam we receive from Nigerian banks?"
Good article on the BBC website today on this, analysing her announcement:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/35754677
Asks quite a few tricky questions of her.
good article...........her PR team must have been working overtime...