"Fending off exhaustion and heart problems" sure sounds like doping. The real question and only question is this: when will it be announced that the Russians are ok for the Olympics because they have agreed to do something after the Olympics that no one believes will actually ever be done. The idea that the sports bureaucrats will ban Russia is laughable; instead we will all be treated to another sad spectacle where the Russians admit to nothing and the IOC will decide that everyone will be be good kids in the future so all is well. Meanwhile, another cohort of Olympians are sentenced to no medals because they will be "won" by various dopesters.
3
So why do we think so many Russian althletes (but not other users) continued to use the drug after the ban was announced?
2
Interesting that Sharapova supposedly has a history of diabetes yet she is shilling candy via Sugarpova!
On second thought, I have a friend who is an alcoholic and has been sober for sometime and he works in his family's liquor store.
I guess if they want to pay me to sell it, I'll take the money but I don't have to eat or drink it. Nothing wrong with that!!!!
On second thought, I have a friend who is an alcoholic and has been sober for sometime and he works in his family's liquor store.
I guess if they want to pay me to sell it, I'll take the money but I don't have to eat or drink it. Nothing wrong with that!!!!
1
This is why Sharapova should not receive any consideration for a so-called "therapeutic use" exemption. This is no isolated incident specific to her and her "health" issues. Its use (misuse) is rife among Russian athletes. And it is used so widely precisely because of its performance enhancing characteristics. These high-level athletes do not have ischemic disease nor are they recovering from a serious illness in the process of which oxygen uptake may be compromised. Sharapova's Russian doctors have now denied they prescribed the drug to her. No American doctor could have prescribed it as it is not approved by the FDA. The drug is widely available without prescription. Sharapova and her legal team are trying to zoom the public in the hope of engendering sympathy and leniency from the authorities. There should be none. And the tennis federation should have an independent anti-doping authority.
4
Why not remove the ban of all drugs? Actually, it might make the Olympics a more entertaining spectacle. Imagine, the otherworldly athletic performances, the new records sent. This change would also be consistent with, fit seamlessly with the pretend PC world of false ideology that has become reality for so many.
2
“…the Kremlin said Sharapova’s failed drug test “should not be projected onto” Russian sports generally.” OK, seeing how she’s been living, since age 6, in America as a green carded permanent resident these past 22 years…But then…
“In the two days since Sharapova’s announcement, seven Russian athletes have been confirmed as having tested positive for meldonium.” ...and… “Russia’s sports minister…has warned that more positive tests for meldonium are likely to come…” Followed by, “[t]he surge in positive tests has been linked to the larger Russian doping scandal…”
Okey Dokey, then…Sharapova’s failed drug test will not be projected onto Russian sports generally…there’s no need…the plethora of other Russian athletes failing the drug test along with links to “the larger Russian doping scandal” suffices to do that very nicely all on their own.
“In the two days since Sharapova’s announcement, seven Russian athletes have been confirmed as having tested positive for meldonium.” ...and… “Russia’s sports minister…has warned that more positive tests for meldonium are likely to come…” Followed by, “[t]he surge in positive tests has been linked to the larger Russian doping scandal…”
Okey Dokey, then…Sharapova’s failed drug test will not be projected onto Russian sports generally…there’s no need…the plethora of other Russian athletes failing the drug test along with links to “the larger Russian doping scandal” suffices to do that very nicely all on their own.
5
Deny, deny, deny, that's all the Russians ever do. Par for the course. It is good that Sharapova's career is over. Let her try to win some more Grand Slams without the drug. We will see then. Don't feel sorry for her anyway, she is a multi-millionaire anyway. It now gives her an excuse to enjoy the rest of her life with her millions $ $ $ .
3
One of the reasons for the decline in interest in many athletic endeavors is the increasing suspicion that athletic achievement is more a product of chemistry than human skill, ability, training, and execution. I grew up loving track and field -- Owens, Rudolph, Thorpe, Bannister, Keino, Beamon -- random names that for a fan of track and field that were magical, but eventually, lost all interest and haven't watched the Summer Olympics for decades. I grew up loving baseball and its statistics -- 60 and 61, 714, 56 -- random numbers that for a true baseball fan were magical, but eventually, during the Barry Bonds' era, lost all interest and can't even tell you the teams in last year's World Series. Now, its tennis and at least I have my memories of Laver, Navratilova, Sampras, Graf, Borg, Court, and Budge to keep me warm. To the sport, however, a fond farewell.
4
I don't understand how Sharapova can have been "based" in the US since she was 7 years old, but still be considered a "Russian" athlete.
1
Maintained her Russian citizenship while being a green card permanent resident.
1
She remains a Russian citizen, competes for Russia, and has said repeatedly that she will never give up her Russian citizenship for American citizenship. Her embrace of Russian doping culture and her amorality about cheating prove that she's Russian to the core.
6
Disagree with the ban. Reggie Lewis of Boston
Celtics, an outstanding basketball player, dropped
dead during the game probably due to ischemia. Other
lesser know players dropped dead during the football
game. If the players have a heart problem they should
take this drug to avoid tissue damage due to poor blood
flow to the heart. Sports are highly competitive and the
players do their best to win. However, they should not
risk their lives if there is an existing health issue.
I still give Sharapova benefit of doubt. For the
negligence she should be given minimum punishment.
Celtics, an outstanding basketball player, dropped
dead during the game probably due to ischemia. Other
lesser know players dropped dead during the football
game. If the players have a heart problem they should
take this drug to avoid tissue damage due to poor blood
flow to the heart. Sports are highly competitive and the
players do their best to win. However, they should not
risk their lives if there is an existing health issue.
I still give Sharapova benefit of doubt. For the
negligence she should be given minimum punishment.
"I wouldn't be surprised if now someone will accuse, for example, or the Russian space troops, or Russian diplomacy in that they "operate under a dope", and on this basis should be prohibited from participation in global processes",-the Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov
1
Many people use advil/ibuprofen. That definitely improves my performance in a way that sounds similar to Meldonium - it helps prevent soreness and tissue damage. However, advil upsets my stomach. Should advil be banned as well? Unless WADA has evidence of harmful side effects, this might just be an attack on the eastern bloc athletes where Meldonium is normal and legal. Banning a substance just because people are using it seems rather arbitrary.
The WADA is so out of control, it's almost funny, except that careers are at stake. If it has no harmful side effects, what's the difference between meldonium and vitamin C or training harder or better coaching? All are things any thinking rational athlete does to improve performance without harming health (well, maybe sometimes that training thing is bad for you, but...).
4
I smell a conspiracy against Russian athletes. A lot of Norwegian athletes suffer from asthma. Marit Bjørgen is a case in point. But, of course, Norwegians are not ideological enemies of the West, so no harm will come.
4
Meldonium.
That doesn't even sound like a real drug. It sounds like a tiny Duchy Leonard Wibberley might have coined for The Mouse That Roared.
That doesn't even sound like a real drug. It sounds like a tiny Duchy Leonard Wibberley might have coined for The Mouse That Roared.
3
The next doping scandal to drop will be over dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) a colorless, odorless substance thought to be added to the drink containers of many elite athletes. While some experts claim it is harmless, and even beneficial to the human body, others point to DHMO's indisputable enhancement on athletic performance. In one way, it is similar to Meldonium, in that DHMO increases blood flow throughout the body and enhances recovery, but unlike Meldonium, DHMO affects most aspects of physical performance. Some also claim DHMO has an addicting quality to it in that if an athlete has been regularly consuming DHMO and discontinues consumption, physical performance will decrease within days, sometimes even within hours, and a variety of illness-like symptoms will set in, until consumption of DHMO is started again.
But DHMO advocates claim it is a harmless substance that has been successfully used by athletes for decades, and that its use in athletics has had some very positive results in clinical studies and that DHMO should not be banned, just because it is performance enhancing.
Should particular substance consumption be banned on the basis of athletic performance enhancement, or should they only be banned if they are proven to pose a physical threat to the athletes? DHMO may be the next substance to challenge the "performance enhancement" = "banned substance" benchmark.
But DHMO advocates claim it is a harmless substance that has been successfully used by athletes for decades, and that its use in athletics has had some very positive results in clinical studies and that DHMO should not be banned, just because it is performance enhancing.
Should particular substance consumption be banned on the basis of athletic performance enhancement, or should they only be banned if they are proven to pose a physical threat to the athletes? DHMO may be the next substance to challenge the "performance enhancement" = "banned substance" benchmark.
6
Eventually food and water, performances enhancers of the first order will have to be added to the banned list.
Hey Lance, how's things in Texas?
Maybe she was "addicted" to meldonium?
Well, I guess the Russian athletes must all have serious heart problems or diabetes (as Sharapova has propositioned) then. Not even 5yo would buy her lame excuse.
3
Hmmm, it is used to help with recovery. Well that let's you train harder and therefore perform better which makes it a performance enhancer. Why else would so many athletes be taking it. Let's end the pointless 4 year and less bans and make it so that you get caught it is a lifetime ban. Obviously the money aspect is the driver of this so add to the penalty that all results, endorsement/prize monies have to be returned as well and you can bet there will be a sudden drop in the use of PEDs and we will once again see who is the better athlete and not the better chemist.
2
And just like Sharapova, all of them were taking meldonium for "medical" reasons, right?
3
One must be very naive to believe that there are now athletes do not take dope.
Today Russian is very behind in sports medicine. Russian doctors use a technique of doping and its applications developed in the Stone Age. Russian doping cannot be compared with the doping used in the US, Europe or China. Marion Jones used doping in 1988, which could not be found 6 years after the Olympic Games. If Marion keep the silence, nobody would have known about the causes of its victory.
Lance Armstrong (cycling) won many races and was caught for doping by chance in 2004, because it violated the schedule of elimination of doping from the body.
Russian simply do not have enough knowledge to take the list of banned drugs and not banned drugs list. Using as doping legal drugs only. They cannot teach doctors be prima doping graphics and charts excretion.
They cannot create a new drugs that will be very similar to the permitted doping, as do the Chinese.
They cannot teach sports doctors as to mask prohibited drugs by permitted one.
Other solution like Norway team using. Norway issue certificates that they are sick and they need medication.
Now we will contemplate achieving the American pharmaceutical industry only. It will be bored to death.
Today Russian is very behind in sports medicine. Russian doctors use a technique of doping and its applications developed in the Stone Age. Russian doping cannot be compared with the doping used in the US, Europe or China. Marion Jones used doping in 1988, which could not be found 6 years after the Olympic Games. If Marion keep the silence, nobody would have known about the causes of its victory.
Lance Armstrong (cycling) won many races and was caught for doping by chance in 2004, because it violated the schedule of elimination of doping from the body.
Russian simply do not have enough knowledge to take the list of banned drugs and not banned drugs list. Using as doping legal drugs only. They cannot teach doctors be prima doping graphics and charts excretion.
They cannot create a new drugs that will be very similar to the permitted doping, as do the Chinese.
They cannot teach sports doctors as to mask prohibited drugs by permitted one.
Other solution like Norway team using. Norway issue certificates that they are sick and they need medication.
Now we will contemplate achieving the American pharmaceutical industry only. It will be bored to death.
2
Wow a medication that will make my muscle work better and not tire so easily,I want it.
Anti-aging meds isn't that Americans latest desire, is this one? Sounds good.
Anti-aging meds isn't that Americans latest desire, is this one? Sounds good.
4
It has not been proven that this drug enhances performance. It has not been proven that this drug harms the body. It seems reasonable to postpone the ban until there is proof.
6
Sharapova took melodium and lost to Serena Williams
easily. She didn't even win a set. The record is
the straight loss of 17 matches to Ms Williams.
so much for performance enhancing drug.
easily. She didn't even win a set. The record is
the straight loss of 17 matches to Ms Williams.
so much for performance enhancing drug.
All of these tennis players have a "team." Trainers, coaches, nutritionists etc. that make up the "team." I still find it hard to believe that NO ONE on Sharapova's team spoke to her about this.
6
There does not seem to be much evidence that meldonium is being abused or that its use harms the athletes. There are plenty of substances and performance aids used by all athletes: good diet, vitamins, massage therapy, sports psychology, ice, heat, cortisone..... If a treatment does not present abuse or medical harm potential, then why ban this one and not all the other so-called "legal" performance aids?
Meldonium was widely used by many Eastern European and Russian athletes, but that prevalence alone is no reason to ban a substance. If the same skimpy rationale is used to ban substances, caffeine would be banned, again, for its prevalence among all athletes including American and Western European athletes.
Meldonium was widely used by many Eastern European and Russian athletes, but that prevalence alone is no reason to ban a substance. If the same skimpy rationale is used to ban substances, caffeine would be banned, again, for its prevalence among all athletes including American and Western European athletes.
5
WADA should have been openly discussed this substance opened it up for public debate. The whole world seems to be accepting the judgment of this policing agency without question. Not only should their judgment be questioned, THEY should be investigated. WADA was invented to make money. I'd like to have a look at their financials to see who's on the payroll and how high they set their salaries. There's something creepy about these quasi-cops. Maybe we'll see a few perp walks by the end of 2016. Maybe this time they've picked on someone with too high a profile who is also well funded. The ITF shouldn't be outsourcing to this huge industry which seems to have an interest in "catching" athletes -- even off-guard and almost secretly -- to show that they're working.
3
I lost any sympathy for her when she dropped the snarky comment about the rug.
5
Yeah, I agree. About 5 years back, I did some import shipments at my import/forwarder job, and it was for full containers of Italian floor tiles, from Italy, of course. Tres expensive, not only to buy, but to ship, and deliver. Super big headache all away around. The San Diego palace of hers that we delivered to then, is probably pretty darn nice. No dirty rugs there, hehehe . . . Don't worry about Maria, she is sitting pretty. No money problems.
1
It is certainly true that the United States has had its share of athletes using performance enhancing drugs but the systematic application of PEDs by Russian athletes and their coaches and trainers with the complicity of the Russian anti-doping agency is reminiscent of the East German and Chinese doping programs. A total ban of the Russian team from the Rio Olympics is in order.
1
It's not how one plays the game but whether one wins or loses...especially when there's a boat load of money at stake. As long as employment, pay, personal standing and popularity remain wholly and completely dependent upon performance, competitive edges will be sought and employed.
Perhaps the various professional sport ruling bodies should bow to the inevitable and come up with lists of performance enhancing substances that athletes will no longer be penalized for using.
Perhaps the various professional sport ruling bodies should bow to the inevitable and come up with lists of performance enhancing substances that athletes will no longer be penalized for using.
1
It's "professional" sports--duh!
1
Unless there is a breakthrough in detection, drug use by athletes will continue to raise dispiriting questions--even when the athlete is in fact clean. My buddies and I have spirited debates about what we think should be done. There doesn't seem to be an answer that satisfies. Cheating may be a "condition," not a solvable problem, and, if so, where does that leave us? Waiting for the next hero or heroine to fall? Policing in vain? Never knowing if a great performance reflects an athlete's having his or her "career day," or something less inspiring? Plus (and don't get me started), there are things like lasik surgery, caffeine, and aspirin, all available to help the athlete perform better on a given day. So, is the border line a moving target? Love to hear others's takes!
1
We can debate the minutia, but the fact is, she used a drug as part of her health regimen, which is totally non-standard, clearly part of a broader Russian sports pharmacological program, and outside the scope of the drug's intended use. The fact she was only taking it illegally for a few months because it was only added this year to the banned list is irrelevant. This is an athlete who clearly sought pharmacological support (albeit legal) on a long-term and consistent basis for her performance. This is bad. Period.
5
The real question is why the FDA hasn't approved this drug for on-label use in the US
3
In another Times article, the "real question" is answered. The manufacturer has not bothered to submit it for approval.
1
It's simply not believable that no one on her team read the email about prohibited drugs. So I'm sure she's not being truthful about the whole ordeal.
2
Maybe she just kept on taking the meldonium pills she had in her med-chest, thinking: "I will not be urine tested while I use the last of these". Obviously, she needed the pills to compete against Williams, and would probably not advanced as far as she did.
Lance Armstrong is cast a an evil villain in the professional sports world, and rightly so for a number of reasons perhaps. However listen to what he says...everybody was doping literally everybody. A reporter made the point to him if you took away placings of drug users in the Tour de France's he won you would have to give the gold medal to the person that placed 30...Lance said "I don't think you could have made 30th clean" and he's probably right. They cannot reward Olympic Gold Medals in Olympic track and field to events where the gold medalist was found guilty of doping, because there is evidence of doping in almost everyone else in the close placings. So literally everyone successful has been doing it. So isn't honoring athletes and paying them huge sums of money something like legalizing the Mafia and interviewing them on television and glorifying them? Both gain their livelihood and status illegally.
From all I've ever heard or read about here, she's lived in the U.S. since she was seven, where today she has a "compound" in Florida not so far from the Williams sisters. Point, if the drug is not approved by the FDA for prescription nor sale in the U.S. but her "family" doctor prescribed the drug, where is her "family" doctor? In Russia? If so, it's clear, to me at least, that she sought the drug as a PED, which so many Eastern European and Russian "sports" doctors prescribe in abundance. The practice was developed, refined and used widely during the cold war era but remains a mainstay in Eastern European and Russian athletics today.
8
I remember when Maria came for Road Racing Cyclist Lance Armstrong after he was caught doping and banned permanently. Now, while he's definitely not a sympathetic figure at all, it's quite ironic that her words about him now ring HOLLOW, for she is now embroiled in her OWN Waterloo. One in which she may recover, but the so-called "Face" of the WTA will never be seen the same way again. She is no longer the Golden Girl of tennis. Come to think of it, she should no longer BE the face of the WTA, and she sure isn't a Golden Girl any longer. She was taking a drug she had to go OUT of the USA for because it was banned here. More importantly, what kind of damage has she perhaps done to her physical well-being? Taking a drug for 10 years which it's manufacturer said was only meant to be used for several weeks ONLY.
I can understand why a skinny tennis player would think she needs pharmacological help to beat a freak like Serena Williams, but Chris Evert managed to beat Martina Navratilova with tactics and strategy, even though Martina was far stronger and had much the better serve. You make your own choices in high-level sports and you live or die by them. Bye, Maria.
I assume that you are familiar with Chris and Martina's medicine cabinets.
1
SO many things wrong with this comment...
3
I have the feeling that it'a a move to ban russian athlets from the Olimpic Games.. and other wealthy sports
Drugs and cheating have been a major component of athletics since people started to be paid for sports. The real question is why do we pay attention and support professional athletics? Everybody laughs at professional wrestling, but the other pro sports aren't that much different. Cycling has been one of the most visible sports in terms of drug use and cheating, with the issue being exposed and thereafter denied beginning with the revelations of the Pelissier brothers to a reporter in 1924:
Henri "You want to see the pills?' After reaching in his sack and grabbing an assortment of pills, his brother Francis added, 'In short we ride on dynamite.' "
Henri "You want to see the pills?' After reaching in his sack and grabbing an assortment of pills, his brother Francis added, 'In short we ride on dynamite.' "
9
Wayne:
Why do we pay attention and support professional athletics? Bread and circuses my friend. Bread and Circus. Okay...I'll take off the tin-foil hat (heh). Such attention has been a part of the human condition probably even before the ages of Greece and Rome. It seems endemic to our nature, as is the desire of those who engage in it to cheat to maximize their advantage. Not all of them do so, mind you. But enough to tarnish "the breed." It's a consequence of the pursuit of the adulation of the crowd, to say nothing of money involved. As the saying goes; it is what it is.
John~
American Net'Zen
Why do we pay attention and support professional athletics? Bread and circuses my friend. Bread and Circus. Okay...I'll take off the tin-foil hat (heh). Such attention has been a part of the human condition probably even before the ages of Greece and Rome. It seems endemic to our nature, as is the desire of those who engage in it to cheat to maximize their advantage. Not all of them do so, mind you. But enough to tarnish "the breed." It's a consequence of the pursuit of the adulation of the crowd, to say nothing of money involved. As the saying goes; it is what it is.
John~
American Net'Zen
1
Great reply, but I wonder without the bucks if there would be much of a cheating or doping problem?
I think people would enjoy amateur athletics just as much...I was a big fan of Track and Field in the 60's and 70's when athletes couldn't even wear shoes with logo's on them...the advantage to being at athlete was travel and scholarships...I think everyone enjoyed the sport as much without the money and probably actually much more. Of course there was use of drugs then, but nothing like when you are paying people huge sums of money.
I think people would enjoy amateur athletics just as much...I was a big fan of Track and Field in the 60's and 70's when athletes couldn't even wear shoes with logo's on them...the advantage to being at athlete was travel and scholarships...I think everyone enjoyed the sport as much without the money and probably actually much more. Of course there was use of drugs then, but nothing like when you are paying people huge sums of money.
Maria Sharapova may be from Russia, but she has lived in the U.S. since she was seven. She has more in common with American athletes than Russian.
17
Yet, she blamed a mysterious illness that could only be treated by a rare drug available only Russia and other former soviet satellite states (it's not approved in the US or Europe)... All that prescribed by an anonymous "family doctor" from Russia.
4
If a substance enhances performance and has negative health effects it should be banned. If all it does is enhance performance and does so without harm, then there is no reason for it to be illegal. Marathon runners used to keep a certain performance enhancing drink at the water stations along the route. The drink was Coke (flat Coke, since the bubbles would have caused belching or worse). But caffeine is on the banned substance list for Olympic sports and many others that are governed by international organizations. Silly.
The question I have about this drug is the same. Is it harmful used the way athletes use it. If it isn't there's legal issue here but not a moral one.
The question I have about this drug is the same. Is it harmful used the way athletes use it. If it isn't there's legal issue here but not a moral one.
11
Ban on caffeine in olympics and most sports was dropped in 2004
1
It is not a moral issue, but a practical issue. Completely aside from the philosophical debate over whether sports outcomes should be based solely on natural ability and training, and not chemical boosters, if an otherwise harmless drug (usually not proven) enhances performance then if one athlete takes it then they all are compelled to take it or face a competitive disadvantage. Not to mention the proliferation of "secret" treatments that would proliferate, resulting in sports outcome depending on who has the best pharmacist.
Caffeine is not on the banned substance list for Olympic sports.
http://www.usada.org/substances/prohibited-list/athlete-guide/
Silly.
http://www.usada.org/substances/prohibited-list/athlete-guide/
Silly.
1
the evidence around whether the drug enhanced performance was “quite thin.
interesting
interesting
7
There is a HUGE problem in sport with PEDs. Their use is endemic. The motives include money, fame, endorsements, a well paying job, and preserving a fading career. Regardless it is wrong, illegal and immoral. It makes a mockery of sport. Athletes cannot seem to get this through their egotistical, hubristic and greedy heads.
Pound is correct when he says “Most of the drugs of choice for dopers were built for therapeutic reasons – like EPO and others. That was supposed to regenerate blood if you had cancer treatment or surgical intervention if you needed to increase blood supply.” This is exactly why athletes particularly the Russians are using the drug.
It is well known in the doping community that athletes will fake any ailment if they can get a prescription with performance enhancing effects. There are substantially more athletes with asthma for example than the general population. Sharapova knew that medonium had performance enhancing benefits before it was banned. She would have to be stupid not to.
The Russians are simply not believable. They are the most corrupt and fraudulent group of athletes, doctors, trainers and coaches in the world. The bottom line is there has to be absolute strict liability. Anything else is absurd.
Pound is correct when he says “Most of the drugs of choice for dopers were built for therapeutic reasons – like EPO and others. That was supposed to regenerate blood if you had cancer treatment or surgical intervention if you needed to increase blood supply.” This is exactly why athletes particularly the Russians are using the drug.
It is well known in the doping community that athletes will fake any ailment if they can get a prescription with performance enhancing effects. There are substantially more athletes with asthma for example than the general population. Sharapova knew that medonium had performance enhancing benefits before it was banned. She would have to be stupid not to.
The Russians are simply not believable. They are the most corrupt and fraudulent group of athletes, doctors, trainers and coaches in the world. The bottom line is there has to be absolute strict liability. Anything else is absurd.
24
Foolish talk when it is clear that the evidence of the benefits from this drug is "quite thin". You don't have the right to make up your own facts.
3
Are you sure they are more corrupt than US college football and basketball coaches.
3
And yet, somehow, most of comments fail to notice the part of the article that says there is very little evidence that there are performance enhancing qualities of the drug.
Likewise, the logic that many athletes use it hence it must be performance enhancing is also flawed. Meat, or even BCAAs are not doping, yet consumed by many athletes.
Please learn the fact before generalising that all Russians are corrupt and fraudulent.
Likewise, the logic that many athletes use it hence it must be performance enhancing is also flawed. Meat, or even BCAAs are not doping, yet consumed by many athletes.
Please learn the fact before generalising that all Russians are corrupt and fraudulent.
4
I'd look into Mark Stuart, the London pharmacist as well, if you are an athlete, its clear that improved recovery is tied to improve performance. What's it in for him other than ignorance?
3
You might get further by looking into US political pressure on WADA to ban the substance.
1
Russian? She has lived all of her life since the age of 7 in Florida.
11
She is very russian. Said she will never become us citizen. Also, this drug not available here. Where do you think she gets it? Methinks russian doctors...she is Russian.
2
And yet, she has a Russian "family doctor" who for ten years prescribes and procures a drug not approved in the us.
3
Really? You think there is some way to get over being Russian? (I speak in love, but with a little fear)
A previously unknown side effect of meldonium is that it makes a person emit an uncontrollable, ear piercing, high pitched shriek when striking a tennis ball that persists until the ball is contacted by the person on the other side of the court or until the ball hits the net, whichever comes first. I previously thought that the shriek was just to distract and hinder the opponent, now the truth is out. It's just drugs.
60
Now that begs the question, what is Azarenka taking?
Instead of standing by her in time of need, Nike and others abandoned her. So, tomorrow if they ban caffeine as a drug, no athlete can drink coffee? What a stupid decision.
9
All this could have been avoided if WADA had run the test on the samples in November and sent a polite letter to tell Maria that she was testing positive for a substance that would be banned in January.
9
I have not heard anyone say they know how long it is detectable. She knew what she was doing, they thought they had a way around the test. They figured wrong.
How sad all those Russian athletes suffering from angina.
38
Also chronic flu and diabetes.
7
There seemed to be reason for sympathy initially, but there seems less and less reason now as the matter is fully described. I am disappointed in Sharapova, even in the way in which she explained herself after time for rehearsal.
32
It is foolish & naive to pin this stealth PEDS phenomenom exclusively on the Russians. The Spanish soccer league & other Spanish athletes are highly suspect since their preeminent Sports MD acknowledged devious use of biological and prescribed substances that defy WADA catagories and testing.
We cherish our superstars and act indignant when they try to heal faster & boost stamina, but we are also to blame for not really facing the fact that- if it seems too good to be true--it isn't.
We cherish our superstars and act indignant when they try to heal faster & boost stamina, but we are also to blame for not really facing the fact that- if it seems too good to be true--it isn't.
14
As usual. an opportunity for the NYTimes to hyperbolically criticize Russia, Russian and Russian athletes.
More of the on-going propaganda onslaught that shows no sign of abating.
Quite disgusting. As though USA athletes - Lance Armstrong, the USA professional baseball and football leagues, anyone? - or speedsters from Jamaica or distance runners from Africa or who knows how many other athletes around the world are blameless.
More of the on-going propaganda onslaught that shows no sign of abating.
Quite disgusting. As though USA athletes - Lance Armstrong, the USA professional baseball and football leagues, anyone? - or speedsters from Jamaica or distance runners from Africa or who knows how many other athletes around the world are blameless.
13
This hardly seems like a punch-up of the Russian Federation or its athletes. The information it provides is in regards to WADA's decision to ban medonium and why Russian athletes and trainers are being caught out. US athletes and trainers are likely only immune due to the FDA not approving the drug for sale and use in the USA.
15
@Wendall- comment brought to you by Ivan Petrokov from Moscow, doing Comrade Putin a big favor- or else...
11
Tip of the iceberg. Big, big money at this level of competition in any sport. One day it is OK next day banned. Clearly we all have a very big problem with PED's and random testing has helped capture a few but many more skate past with no consequence. Where will it end? When will it end? Professional sports are corrupted beyond measure. Throw all the records out the window, sad and disgraceful state of affairs.
3
It would have somewhat redeeming if Sharapova told the truth at her press conference about her reasons for taking the drug. Instead she made up a bunch of lies about recurring flu and diabetes. She and all of the other Russian athletes that got busted can now form their own pick-up tennis league and on days off go bike riding with Lance Armstrong. I pray with all my heart and soul that Serena and Venus are clean
35
You hit the nail on the head for me. Her cover story does not fit the circumstances. Taking any drug that serious, for years, in your youth is nuts. I wonder how many of the dopers will see the back side of 60.
It takes generations to really understand what drugs do. In 1942 people thought DDT was a wonder drug akin to penicillin, search and find the images of people swallowed by clouds of DDT powder, smiling happily. They were worried about typhus and malaria killing them, these guys, not so much.
Not always a good idea to idolize someone just because they can hit balls well or run fast.
It takes generations to really understand what drugs do. In 1942 people thought DDT was a wonder drug akin to penicillin, search and find the images of people swallowed by clouds of DDT powder, smiling happily. They were worried about typhus and malaria killing them, these guys, not so much.
Not always a good idea to idolize someone just because they can hit balls well or run fast.
This past fall, The Times ran a story regarding absence of Russian runners from the elite field of the New York Marathon. According to The Times, there was widespread concern that Russian athletes in a host of sports were using performance enhancing drugs. While each case has its own set of facts, it is not shocking that Sharapova is one of many Russian athletes found to using meldonium.
Initially, there was reason to believe that Sharapova's use of this drug was for legitimate medical needs, and that her positive test was an unfortunate mistake. Based on information that has come out since her press conference, it is clearer now that her use for a period of ten years is an unconventional, off-label use of a drug with certain performance enhancing properties, and was being used by many athletes. It seem inescapable that, contrary to her public claims, Sharapova was using meldonium to enhance her performance, just as other athletes were doing.
Initially, there was reason to believe that Sharapova's use of this drug was for legitimate medical needs, and that her positive test was an unfortunate mistake. Based on information that has come out since her press conference, it is clearer now that her use for a period of ten years is an unconventional, off-label use of a drug with certain performance enhancing properties, and was being used by many athletes. It seem inescapable that, contrary to her public claims, Sharapova was using meldonium to enhance her performance, just as other athletes were doing.
39
Again, you cannot make up your own facts. There is no evidence that the drug is performance enhancing. The only evidence suggests that it helps in recovery. That alone does not make it performance enhancing.
2
When an athlete must play seven matches in two weeks, often with only a day of rest, how is the ability to speed recovery, and thereby play at a higher level than would otherwise be possible, not performance enhancing? Only by using a crabbed definition of "performance enhancing," can it be suggested that meldonium is not a performance enhancing drug.
3
Seems odd to suddenly ban something that's been in common and open use for so long. Perhaps that should have been discussed, debated and the result publicized. She's an infinitely better example than most of our felonious professional sportsroids.
16
It was discussed for two years and every athlete knew what was going on. She thought she had a way to hide it but it didn't work.
30
You are repeating the observers of baseball and tour de france in the 50's. Amphetamines were so common, big bowl of them out in the trainers room. Hey everyone does it, we do better.
Really?
Really?
If you don't you force everyone to use it.
and those two Russian antidoping officials who were found dead within weeks of each other. Why isn't this being investigated more by the media? My theory is that Putin ordered a hit due to the huge negative portrayal of Russia and Russian sports throughout the world. Can't have anyone insulting Mother Russia can we? Sharapova better hire some bodyguards real quick.
21
I was not aware of the ban on travel to the Kingdom Of Meldonium.
7
Sounds like something Buck Rogers of the 21st Century would take for his goiter. Isn't Jeff Bezos planning his first rocket trip there?