Tennis

[arcus]

Mattek-Sands is the most interesting reveal so far, IMO. It seems to prove she was the female tennis player with a DHEA TUE ( DHEA is a real anabolic steroid). I speculated about this here and on other forums, based on the CAS document redaction marks.
http://tennishasasteroidproblem.blogspot.com/2015/06/cas-2014a3751-x-vs-wada.html

Shocking, IMO, to grant a TUE for that medication for that "questionable Dx" under those circumstances. Can someone with regulatory authority please evaluate Dr Eric Serrano?

http://fancybear.net/page-2.html

 

[arcus]

^

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/sports/doping-olympics-russia-hacking-williams-biles.html?smid=tw-nytsports&smtyp=cur&_r=1


"Stuart Miller, director of the International Tennis Federation’s antidoping program, approved the applications, and he said the Williams’s medical records showed that the system had worked properly.

“Anybody who is an athlete and is subject to an antidoping program, like the Williams sisters, is subject also to getting ill and having medical conditions,” Mr. Miller said. “They’re not immune from that.”

Mr. Miller said the tennis federation received an average 100 requests annually, a sizable number of which were withdrawn before they were ruled on. A panel of medical professionals considered each case file in a blind review, excluding the identity of the requesting athlete, he said, and ultimately approved roughly 50 to 60 percent of the requests.

In his 10-year tenure over the program, Mr. Miller said that a case involving Ms. Mattek-Sands — the American tennis player whose files were published on Wednesday — was the only one WADA had overturned.

Her application for drugs to treat “adrenal insufficiency” — hydrocortisone and DHEA — was approved in 2013 by the tennis federation but revoked in 2014 by WADA, which believed DHEA would enhance her performance."

 

[arcus]

Bethanie mattek-Sands is not a minnow. She's a current GS doubles champion.

Will the press pick-up upon her alleged rare and (WADA/CAS) rejected diagnosis/treatment?

Will they explore her "atypical choice" of medical providers? Paging Dr Eric Serrano.........

We'll see.

 

[DanielSong39]

Re:

ITF gets rid of 2 crooked umpires.. (and announces the news on a day when this story will be totally buried by the Fancy Bear leaks)

"The International Tennis Federation announced today that Uzbekistan tennis officials Sherzod Hasanov and Arkhip Molotyagin have been banned for life and had their ITF officiating certification permanently revoked after being found guilty of offences under the Code of Conduct for Officials.

Following investigations by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), Mr Hasanov and Mr Molotyagin were found guilty by an ITF Disciplinary Panel of charges, laid under the 2015 edition of the Code of Conduct for Officials, contrary to Articles A10, A13 and B1:
- Using a mobile phone to communicate scores of matches over which they were officiating to a third party at the ITF Futures event in Tiberias, Israel between 7-9 September 2015;
- Delaying the inputting of scores into their PDA device to allow the third party and/or other third parties to benefit by placing bets on matches in which they were officiating at the Tournament;
- Delaying the inputting of scores and/or fraudulently manipulating scores by inputting fictitious deuce games in to their PDA device while officiating at other ITF Futures events over a period of 7 months;
- That Mr Hasanov counselled or procured another official and/or officials to participate in the fraudulent manipulation of the ‘livescoring’ system on our around January 2015 including, but not limited to, Mr Molotyagin;
- Failing to report to the Joint Certification Programme the unlawful conduct of officials whom they knew to be fraudulently manipulating the ‘live scoring’ system.



http://www.itftennis.com/news/241319.aspx#BKiy1KTH7oT5Fzv8.99"

Did they get rid of the Serena Williams umpires?

Yeah, I know she dopes, but even given that she's gotten some unfathomably bad calls over the years.

 

[avanti]

Quote from Arcus post above: "Delaying the inputting of scores into their PDA device to allow the third party and/or other third parties to benefit by placing bets on matches in which they were officiating at the Tournament;"

I was present at a important tournament where security videoed, then ejected, two guys calling in scores to a third party as part of a gambling ring. What I do not understand how a bookmaker takes bets on a game after it has started, especially since live scores are often on line in real time.

 

[DanielSong39]

Betfair has in-running action.

 

[bewildered]

Tennis scores work as follows. The umpire inputs the score into his PDA. Years ago, this info was immediately given for free to the internet via their livescores site/app. Then a company bought the rights to this data and sold it to bookmakers across the globe. The livescores site/app was then slowed down to about 2 points behind live.

Before this data deal, tennis gamblers could attend events and bet from their seat, comfortably beating the in-play delay on betfair, where huge money is traded on tennis, and to a much lesser extent traditional bookmakers. This data company pays millions to the tennis authorities for this data and only when the deal was made did they start to clamp down on 'courtsiding' because it might cost them money and jeopardise their data deal.

Before all that you could bet from your seat, there was even a hitting partner for several top players who used to pull out his laptop in the front row seats once the match started and openly trade on the match. Nobody had a clue what he and the rest of them were up to. Once the data deal was made they realised what was going on and started to clamp down on it. Then the courtsiders had to adapt and instead reprogrammed mobile phones to relay scores to a third party to place the bets on a computer in London near to the Betfair servers. It was all automated betting using algorithms with a person manning the computer in case of any unexpected events occurring on court which the algo couldn't handle. There were a number of syndicates operating like this, sending guys all over the world all expenses paid every week to relay scores. They made tens of millions from it until they completely clamped down on it. They now have people watching the crowd and all of these guys are well known to them, so it doesn't really happen much any more. I suppose getting to the umpire is another way of doing the same thing really.

Nowadays the fastest scoreboards are on bookmakers websites, but that's just the bookies relaying the data they are getting from the data company and by then they have already changed their prices.

 

[arcus]

Re:

Tennis scores work as follows. The umpire inputs the score into his PDA. Years ago, this info was immediately given for free to the internet via their livescores site/app. Then a company bought the rights to this data and sold it to bookmakers across the globe. The livescores site/app was then slowed down to about 2 points behind live.

Before this data deal, tennis gamblers could attend events and bet from their seat, comfortably beating the in-play delay on betfair, where huge money is traded on tennis, and to a much lesser extent traditional bookmakers. This data company pays millions to the tennis authorities for this data and only when the deal was made did they start to clamp down on 'courtsiding' because it might cost them money and jeopardise their data deal.

Before all that you could bet from your seat, there was even a hitting partner for several top players who used to pull out his laptop in the front row seats once the match started and openly trade on the match. Nobody had a clue what he and the rest of them were up to. Once the data deal was made they realised what was going on and started to clamp down on it. Then the courtsiders had to adapt and instead reprogrammed mobile phones to relay scores to a third party to place the bets on a computer in London near to the Betfair servers. It was all automated betting using algorithms with a person manning the computer in case of any unexpected events occurring on court which the algo couldn't handle. There were a number of syndicates operating like this, sending guys all over the world all expenses paid every week to relay scores. They made tens of millions from it until they completely clamped down on it. They now have people watching the crowd and all of these guys are well known to them, so it doesn't really happen much any more. I suppose getting to the umpire is another way of doing the same thing really.

Nowadays the fastest scoreboards are on bookmakers websites, but that's just the bookies relaying the data they are getting from the data company and by then they have already changed their prices.

Thanks,
Why did tennis sell the rights to a third party, as opposed to dealing directly with betting companies and cutting out the middleman? Did they desire one degree of separation from the badness?

 

[bewildered]

the company is called enetpulse, they run this service for football too by having a spotter at every live in-play match with a pda relating what is happening on the pitch, corners, free kicks etc. I'd imagine the Tennis authorities wouldn't have the infrastructure to do it, whereas this company was experienced and ready to go and had all the contacts with the bookies.

 

[arcus]

Nadal has had a TUE for Corticotrophin (Tetracosactide)....
https://fancybear.net/pages/4.html


From Wiki
"As well as its legitimate medical applications, it has been widely reported that tetracosactide has also been used as an illegal performance-enhancing drug by professional cyclists. It is known to be used as a doping agent to increase the secretion of glucocorticoids by adrenal glands"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetracosactide

 

[bewildered]

TUE for Corticotrophin from 30 July to 8 August 2012. He lost against Rosol at Wimbledon on 28th June 2012 and didn't return to action until Feb 2013 citing a knee-injury so it certainly didn't enhance performance as he didn't perform

 

[BullsFan22]

Re:

TUE for Corticotrophin from 30 July to 8 August 2012. He lost against Rosol at Wimbledon on 28th June 2012 and didn't return to action until Feb 2013 citing a knee-injury so it certainly didn't enhance performance as he didn't perform

Perhaps he was given one of those special 'silent bans.' Six months. Isn't too far fetched. Perhaps he exceeded the legal use of that drug and had to get a suspension. Just a thought.

 

[sniper]

it does seem odd that he needed a TUE when he wasn't even competing.
Do ITF ooc-test injured athletes?

 

[SeriousSam]

Are there some drugs that are only banned during competition but not training? If not, you'd need a TUE regardless.

Applying for a TUE should always be done. If the request fails, you can still just dope anyway.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re:

TUE for Corticotrophin from 30 July to 8 August 2012. He lost against Rosol at Wimbledon on 28th June 2012 and didn't return to action until Feb 2013 citing a knee-injury so it certainly didn't enhance performance as he didn't perform

Must've been a very effective treatment since in 2013 he smashed it:

“Let’s take Nadal. It’s not possible that he tests negative. After 7 months out of the courts due to injury, he came back and won 10 out of 13 tournaments. That is impossible. Impossible! It tells you everything. That combined with the rumours of fake injuries to cover up silent bans. Look, nobody believes in that story that he didn’t take anything! Imagine what it would mean for tennis if it broke the news that he tested positive.” - banned tennis player Daniel Koellerer.

 

[Zebadeedee]

Are there some drugs that are only banned during competition but not training? If not, you'd need a TUE regardless. .

Cilic tested positive for nikethamide (Coramine) which is only banned in competition when he was caught. He was using Coramine tablets while training in Monte Carlo.

 

[arcus]

Re:

TUE for Corticotrophin from 30 July to 8 August 2012. He lost against Rosol at Wimbledon on 28th June 2012 and didn't return to action until Feb 2013 citing a knee-injury so it certainly didn't enhance performance as he didn't perform

The TUE was active after he had announced his withdrawal from the Olympics and one week before he announced he was withdrawing from the US Open due to tendonitis in his knee.

Cosyntropin is not indicated for tendonitis and a Pubmed search of tendonitis + either Cosyntrop(h)in or Tetracosactide yields nothing. Perhaps an MD was prescribing off-label based on the theory that the agent causes a surge of glucocorticoid adrenal hormone release, and that this could have desirable anti-inflammatory properties. I still think this is odd in the context of zero supporting literature. It also stimulates the release of anabolic hormones. The once off application for a TUE would be atypical if it were being used for nefarious purposes, but nothing would surprise me when it comes to modern pro-athletes.

http://www.valeopharma.com/Synacthen_Depot_PM_E_19JN2015.pdf

The medical indications (apart from the commonest - its use in a diagnostic test for adrenal insufficiency) include the following (and it is not a common/standard therapy for any of the common ones)
Collagen Diseases: Acute rheumatic fever; rheumatoid arthritis; lupus erythematosus; periarteritis nodosa, psoriatic arthritis; scleroderma; rheumatoid spondylitis; Still's disease.
Dermatologic Diseases: Exfoliative dermatitis; dermatomyositis; pemphigus.
Endocrine Diseases: Panhypopituitarism.
Eye Diseases: Choroiditis; conjunctivitis; iritis; keratitis; optic neuritis; sympathetic ophthalmia; uveitis.
Hemolytic Diseases: Acquired hemolytic jaundice.
Other Diseases: Nephrotic syndrome; ulcerative colitis; Bell's palsy; acute exacerbations of multiple sclerosis, and as adjuvant treatment in cases of acute gout

It has also been used in a neurologic condition called "Infantile spasms". I doubt Nadal has this, although he does do a lot of bizarre picking at his underwear :razz:

 

[arcus]

Are there some drugs that are only banned during competition but not training? If not, you'd need a TUE regardless.

Applying for a TUE should always be done. If the request fails, you can still just dope anyway.

http://list.wada-ama.org/prohibited-in-competition/prohibited-substances/

http://list.wada-ama.org/prohibited-all-times/prohibited-substances/

Cosintrophin would come under S2, I guess.

 

[Zebadeedee]

According to this, indicated for "adrenal insufficiency". TUE has an eight year validity!

http://www.fedcup.com/media/140679/140679.pdf

Probably used as a masking agent.

 

[Cake]

Re:

According to this, indicated for "adrenal insufficiency". TUE has an eight year validity!

http://www.fedcup.com/media/140679/140679.pdf

Probably used as a masking agent.

what a lot of ill people pro sports people are!

 

[arcus]

Re:

According to this, indicated for "adrenal insufficiency". TUE has an eight year validity!

http://www.fedcup.com/media/140679/140679.pdf

Probably used as a masking agent.

It's not indicated to treat the condition, only as part of the diagnostic work-up. You measure the natural hormone level at baseline, administer cosyntropin (which should stimulate hormone production in a functioning gland). and see how much the level increases. If it doesn't rise by a certain amount, the gland is deemed to be dysfunctional.

 

[arcus]

Apparently, Rafa has stated that the TUE was for his knee condition.
https://twitter.com/christophclarey/status/777942047684788224

How do you get a TUE for a substance that has never been medically approved to treat an orthopedic knee condition?

Even if you stretch the WADA code for musculo-skeletal injury beyond its limit, and allow cosyntrophin due to it's 'glucocorticoid' effects, aren't you only allowed one dose, rather than one dose every three days?

https://wada-main-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/files/M.I._Musculosketeletal_Conditions_2.0_EN.pdf

 

[heart_attack_man]

LOL @ Rafa. Ridonkulous.

I don't think the media will pick this up and run with it like the Wiggins thing, because the tennis commentators (and hence the tennis watching public) don't think that there's any benefit doping in Tennis... *rolleyes*

 

[bewildered]

i think the corticoid TUE release is actually good for Nadal and the ITF. It tends to put to bed the idea that Nadal was on a silent ban during that period and was in fact genuinely injured. If he were on a silent ban for 6 or 7 months why would he dope with corticoids one month into the ban? More likely he needed it for swelling due to a genuine knee-injury.

He may have doped before he returned in 2013 but I don't think this indicates that at all.

 

[DanielSong39]

I believe it's likely that Nadal juiced before, during, and after 2013.

With that said, I think it's more likely that Nadal was injured, rather than serving a silent ban.

At the end of the day juicing is part of the sport.