Maria Sharapova
Anonymous
Posts: 79,666
I have filled out loads of forms over the last 10 years asking if I have any medical conditions and/or take any regular medication.
Are we really meant to believe that a top level sports person earning millions has never been asked these questions?
And even if not, did not think it might be a good idea to check/mention it?
The whole medical condition/medication thing sounds a crock to me anyway!
I hope her life goes very downhill from here, as she deserves that a lot more than the highs it has wrongly reached.
She is no longer so much a tennis star and more just a dressed porn star now IMO.
She should just go away and enjoy what she has.
To say she wants to play again is insulting.
Are we really meant to believe that a top level sports person earning millions has never been asked these questions?
And even if not, did not think it might be a good idea to check/mention it?
The whole medical condition/medication thing sounds a crock to me anyway!
I hope her life goes very downhill from here, as she deserves that a lot more than the highs it has wrongly reached.
She is no longer so much a tennis star and more just a dressed porn star now IMO.
She should just go away and enjoy what she has.
To say she wants to play again is insulting.
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Comments
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Quick to jump aren't you. Remember what she was taking was not illegal until this year. In general the most obvious explanation is the most likely one, as in not reading an email. Of course you probably think she planned it all 10 years ago.0
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Get off the fence Carbonator... ;-)
I do find it almost impossible to understand how someone at that level would put any kind of drug, medication, supplement - in fact anything at all - into their body without careful advice from experts first.0 -
markhewitt1978 wrote:Quick to jump aren't you. Remember what she was taking was not illegal until this year. In general the most obvious explanation is the most likely one, as in not reading an email. Of course you probably think she planned it all 10 years ago.
Er yes I do actually.
The fact it has only just been put on the list means nothing.
It just means that someone in her camp/employ found out (by looking for something 'legal' 8) with its qualities) 10 years before that point.
So she takes a drug for 10 years and tells no one?
As I said, is she not asked the question?
All sounds very odd at best.
It worked though, as I don't think she is a diabetic yet 8)0 -
markhewitt1978 wrote:Quick to jump aren't you. Remember what she was taking was not illegal until this year.
Meldonium (also known as Mildronate, THP, MET-88, Mildronāts or Quaterine[1]) is a clinically used anti-ischemic drug that is currently manufactured and marketed by Grindeks, a pharmaceutical company based in Latvia.[2] It is used in Lithuania and the Russian Federation,[3] but is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States.
From wikipedia...
Full name Maria Yuryevna Sharapova
Native name Мари́я Ю́рьевна Шара́пова
Country (sports) Russia
Residence Bradenton, Florida, United States
So where is she getting it from?Advocate of disc brakes.0 -
Erm... The above does in no way imply that I like tennis, lets just make that quite clear.Advocate of disc brakes.0
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Hiding behind 'perfectly legal' does not change the fact that if she took it to boost her performance both before and after it was banned, without telling anyone, makes her a dirty cheat!
A very pretty cheat, but a cheat none the less.
Did Nike etc. not ask her when she was sponsored?
Surely a sponsor (that gave a monkeys 8) ) would have a list and then cross reference any newly banned drug against those that their cash cow takes/has taken?0 -
Does her coach not know what she is taking?
Why do they still have a job in the sport?0 -
Carbonator wrote:markhewitt1978 wrote:Quick to jump aren't you. Remember what she was taking was not illegal until this year. In general the most obvious explanation is the most likely one, as in not reading an email. Of course you probably think she planned it all 10 years ago.
Er yes I do actually.
The fact it has only just been put on the list means nothing.
It just means that someone in her camp/employ found out (by looking for something 'legal' 8) with its qualities) 10 years before that point.
So she takes a drug for 10 years and tells no one?
As I said, is she not asked the question?
All sounds very odd at best.
It worked though, as I don't think she is a diabetic yet 8)
Er wrong actually. Something is either banned or it isnt.
For 10 years she was competing legal. No matter the reason she was taking it, she only became 'dirty' on the 1st Jan.0 -
Ballysmate wrote:Er wrong actually. Something is either banned or it isnt.
For 10 years she was competing legal. No matter the reason she was taking it, she only became 'dirty' on the 1st Jan.
Yes, I think I'd agree with that.
I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of "supplements" that athletes take in order to improve their performance. Some may work and some may not - but they taken them.
If one of those became illegal tomorrow I don't see how you can retrospectively punish people for taking it last week.
However, I still stick to the point earlier - I fail to see how someone at this level can keep taking something after it is made illegal and then try to plead ignorance.0 -
As someone in Pro Race has said she was undoubtably using it for the (perfectly legal until 01/01/2016) performance benefits but that wouldn't have sounded so good in PR terms hence the likely 'bogus' health issue. Until the start of the year it wasn't cheating, you can only be cheating if your are breaking the rules. To most of us using medication for a perceived benefit is unethical but ethics are arbitrary. On the issue of the medicine not being approved by the USFDA, my understanding is that this is just down to their protectionist laws as the drug isn't produced by, or licenced to, a U.S. company and so doctors over there have to prescribe a U.S. manufactured equivalent. It's perfectly legal to get it elsewhere and take it into the country.
The OP is completely over the top. In the doping spectrum this is pretty low level stuff. She got caught and, unlike the majority of top level sportspeople who have been caught, admitted it and took full responsibility. She'll get a ban that might be lower than we would like and then, like other convicted dopers, be allowed to return. I really don't like her much but compared to the likes of Gatland she deserves some credit for the way she has dealt with this.0 -
Its ok, she's much better looking than Lance Armstrong, she'll go far.
*Until a newer model comes along."The Prince of Wales is now the King of France" - Calton Kirby0 -
ddraver wrote:Well, in her case she hasnt, she has announced a press conference, fronted up and accepted the suspension
many of her countrymen havent done so...
Er, no. There was no 'fronting up'.
She got caught, then she put on a front.
She has no option but to 'accept' a ban.
It's not optional lol.
Hopefully that's the last we see of the dirty cheat.0 -
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Carbonator wrote:ddraver wrote:Well, in her case she hasnt, she has announced a press conference, fronted up and accepted the suspension
many of her countrymen havent done so...
Er, no. There was no 'fronting up'.
She got caught, then she put on a front.
She has no option but to 'accept' a ban.
It's not optional lol.
Hopefully that's the last we see of the dirty cheat.
you clearly arent in possession of the full facts so I ll leave you to Rick's Pitchfork. There's a bloke called Joel in the PR forum you should meet, you'd like him...We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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Pross wrote:As someone in Pro Race has said she was undoubtably using it for the (perfectly legal until 01/01/2016) performance benefits but that wouldn't have sounded so good in PR terms hence the likely 'bogus' health issue. ............................She got caught and, unlike the majority of top level sportspeople who have been caught, admitted it and took full responsibility. .
Well if as you suggest she has made up a bogus reason for taking it in the past she hasn't really fully admitted it.
As with cyclists though I don't really care if they admit it or not - I don't think admitting it - often on the advice of a PR man mitigates their guilt as it's almost certainly in most cases a calculation as to how best to limit the damage.
As far as whether she knew it was now a banned substance it's hard to say without knowing more about the risks and benefits of taking this as a performance enhancer - if it's easily detected but with little efficacy then I'd be more inclined to believe her story but ultimately short of a confession or a whistle blower we'll never know for sure.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
maybe she will have to do playboy now to make up for the loss of income0
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the playing mantis wrote:maybe she will have to do playboy now to make up for the loss of income
Like I said, hopefully thats not the last we see of the dirty cheat :twisted:0 -
It sounds like a damage limitation exercise. She'll get a ban but what's important to her is how long it will be. At 6 month she's laughing, at the maximum end of the possible ban length she's stuffed. Whatever she says it's a cynical attempt at achieving the former ban.
My suspicion is she's been taking something for a legal advantage for years. It moved to the banned list and she never stopped taking it for some reason, ignorance (no excuse) or chancing it (cheating). I have no evidence but my money would be on her having no real medical reason to take this drug.0 -
It would be very interesting if doping tests were made public regardless of outcome and showed all the substances found, legal or not.0
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Everyone seems very eager to condemn her for taking something that was perfectly legal until recently. Does that mean every time they add and remove caffeine from the list you alternately crucify and then forgive everyone that drinks Redbull?0
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Poitr wrote:Everyone seems very eager to condemn her for taking something that was perfectly legal until recently.
You got that right, it was legal, so it was perfect
I would have thought a substance needs to be abused (used for cheating) by someone (Maria Sharapova being one such person) before it is going to get banned.
The fact it was not on the list until recently is almost irrelevant in the bigger picture of her use of it.
She is a cheat and is now lying about it, of course people are condemning her.
Fair enough if you feel the cheating and lying are reasonable things to do, and thats the type of world you want to live in, but don't whinge at people who think otherwise.
I am not sure how pro athletes deal with a visit to Starbucks, but if you cannot see the difference between Caffeine in everyday life, and drugs for fake conditions that you have to source from abroad, then it is going to be difficult for you to grasp the concept of cheating.
Hopefully you get the lying bit though.0 -
There was a BBC programme which ran an experiment with a drink that provided benefits to sports people, high caffeine drink IIRC. The details are a bit hazy but the expert provided the tester with measured doses of caffeine in the same concentration as caffeine drinks. Then performance was measured. Can't remember the details exactly but I believe the amount of the drink needed would be a lot. I'm not sure how athlete's bladders are but it would likely have me relieving myself mid race or against the post of the net mid game!0
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Although it was legal I question the personal morality of any athlete taking a prescription/medical drug when there is no clinical need for it. If Sharapova has that valid medical need then her ethics up to the banning of the stuff is OK. No medical reason then I view her as an Athlete trying to gain every advantage she can. However the line between high and low ethics for me is all down to the substance being taken. If it is a prescribed and controlled drug then IMHO it is unethical to use for competitive advantage as the only reason to take it. If it is not a controlled substance, such as commercial sports supplements (provided they contain no substances banned for sports use), then there is no ethical and issue IMHO.
The other factor is continuing with a drug after its banning date. That is simple incompetence at best.
TL:DR Two issues, using medicinal/prescribed drugs for competitive advantage without the medical reason. Second incompetence to carry on taking it after the ban date.0
