Tennis

[arcus]

It's been confirmed (already suspected in this thread) that the female tennis player allowed a TUE by the ITF for the anabolic steroid DHEA was Bethanie Mattik-Sands (before WADA stepped in and quashed it).

In this light, I thought it'd be interesting to revisit the 2016 Australian Open during which Bethanie and other players (Djokovic, Murray, Raonic, Ivanovic, Isner, Sock, and the Bryans), visited a Melbourne clinic providing hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy. The clinic in question offers this service, and claims to assist athletes with 'athletic recovery and performance'. The players even had their pics feature on the front page of Hypermed's website! (The pictures of Raonic, Murray and Ivanovic have since been removed, but I recall seeing them).

http://www.hypermed.com.au/home

http://www.wsj.com/articles/tennis-players-get-an-oxygen-fix-1454023796

HBO therapy is not prohibited by WADA, but scientific evidence for its efficacy in sports medicine is limited at best. It's not medically approved for sports injuries by the FDA, nor by Australian regulatory authorities, as far as I can tell.

The clinic is run by Malcolm Hooper, a former chiropracter whose license was suspended for two years in 2013 after a dispute with a former cerebral palsy patient who allegedly paid the clinic ~40K AUD for therapies with no proven benefit. Hooper was also investigated as part of the Aussie rules football supplement scandal, since the football players in question allegedly used his clinic.

Hooper's Hypermed website used to feature AOD-9604, which is on the WADA prohibited list. It still mentions Thymosin, which is also banned by WADA.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/essendons-chiropractor-charged-disabled-patient-45000-for-unproven-treatments/story-fni5ezdm-1226657449801

Maybe the tennis players were gullible and viewed HBO as a "copper bracelet/cure my rheumatism" kind-of-thing. Maybe they knew that HBO genuinely enhanced their performance (and it is legal). Maybe. Personally, I'm unconvinced.

Anytime I see wealthy, elite athletes queuing-up at these quasi-medical clinics, I shudder. Makes me think of The Guyer institute, Biogenesis, and Dr Bonar....... They have access to the best legitimate sports medicine in the world. So why on earth are they going there?

Looking into the people involved in the Hypermed clinic makes me even more uneasy (http://www.hypermed.com.au/team).

Jack Bolshinsky is FB friends with Arthur Staroselsky... Dr Staroselsky is a cosmetic dermatologist who practices in Canada and who linked this on his FB page:
http://www.worldhealth.net/news/Symptoms-of-Adrenal-Fatigue-and-natural-Remedies/#.V9dXXn4bVvc.facebook
"Adrenal fatigue is not just a disorder that high-end athletes get"

The link finishes with a solution for 'adrenal fatigue' (whatever that is)........ to the anabolic steroid DHEA

Which brings us right back to........Our friend BMS!

 

[Amnes2015]

i can't ask this on any tennis forum because they would burn me on a cross

are there any certified reports of tests that proved that Serena Williams is genetically a woman ? i mean DNA and chromozome stuff.

because if you take away her boobs (that any man can grow with the right hormone cocktail mix) and her long hair (that's even easier) she looks and has body proportions of a man. and ofc the power of a juiced man.

 

[Nomad]

Re:

i can't ask this on any tennis forum because they would burn me on a cross

are there any certified reports of tests that proved that Serena Williams is genetically a woman ? i mean DNA and chromozome stuff.

because if you take away her boobs (that any man can grow with the right hormone cocktail mix) and her long hair (that's even easier) she looks and has body proportions of a man. and ofc the power of a juiced man.

I think a similar issue came up with South African 800m runner & Rio gold medalist Caster Semenya. Some of her competitors were complaining that she was a man due to her extremely masculine characteristics. She did have gender testing and she's female with a condition called hyperandrogenism, or high natural levels of testosterone. I've seen an interview with Semenya, she's a nice person and very troubled by the contraversy surrounding her:

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/olympics/700091/rio-2016-olympics-caster-semenya-intersex-runner-gender:

 

[BullsFan22]

Re: Re:

i can't ask this on any tennis forum because they would burn me on a cross

are there any certified reports of tests that proved that Serena Williams is genetically a woman ? i mean DNA and chromozome stuff.

because if you take away her boobs (that any man can grow with the right hormone cocktail mix) and her long hair (that's even easier) she looks and has body proportions of a man. and ofc the power of a juiced man.

I think a similar issue came up with South African 800m runner & Rio gold medalist Caster Semenya. Some of her competitors were complaining that she was a man due to her extremely masculine characteristics. She did have gender testing and she's female with a condition called hyperandrogenism, or high natural levels of testosterone. I've seen an interview with Semenya, she's a nice person and very troubled by the contraversy surrounding her:

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/olympics/700091/rio-2016-olympics-caster-semenya-intersex-runner-gender:

Flexing muscles poses don't help her change the thinking of the people who question her femininity.

 

[DanielSong39]

Serena Williams is a woman who is both genetically gifted and doped to the extremes.

As for Caster Semenya, it's quite possible that she is actually an intersex individual who identifies herself as a female. That situation got out of hand when the authorities told her that she had to dope in order to stay eligible (i.e. take drugs that lowers testosterone).

 

[DanielSong39]

As for Serena Williams' power, her groundstrokes aren't any harder than the other top women on the tour. Her serve used to give her a massive advantage but not so much anymore, and it's much more inconsistent than it used to be.

In terms of pure power, Kerber can match her from the baseline and Keys is simply more powerful than Williams.

 

[Amnes2015]

this is a *woman tennis player, elite *athlete
hahaha
and why is he wearing those sleeves ? needle marks or what

 

[mike75]

Re:

this is a *woman tennis player, elite *athlete
hahaha
and why is he wearing those sleeves ? needle marks or what

Ok, we get it, you think Serena Williams is an actual male. She's not, but if you want to think that, go ahead.

 

[sniper]

amnes' comments don't necessarily qualify as 'subtle'.

still, that lady's physique is insane, and all too reminiscent of East German style doping.

the fact that so few sports journos entertain the thought of serena and doping, testifies to the ridiculously poor state of present day sports journalism.

 

[BullsFan22]

Re:

amnes' comments don't necessarily qualify as 'subtle'.

still, that lady's physique is insane, and all too reminiscent of East German style doping.

the fact that so few sports journos entertain the thought of serena and doping, testifies to the ridiculously poor state of present day sports journalism.

It's no different than when Armstrong was dominating the TDF. How many journalists, particularly American, were openly questioning his performances (and others, let's be honest)? Not many, as I recall.

 

[proffate]

Re: Re:

this is a *woman tennis player, elite *athlete
hahaha
and why is he wearing those sleeves ? needle marks or what

Ok, we get it, you think Serena Williams is an actual male. She's not, but if you want to think that, go ahead.

Careful, it's not trivial to determine what defines "male". Apparently one metric is testosterone levels, and according to some, that means Caster Semenya is not female. Do we actually know what Serena's T levels are, whether natural or boosted?

 

[Zebadeedee]

Re:

i can't ask this on any tennis forum because they would burn me on a cross

are there any certified reports of tests that proved that Serena Williams is genetically a woman ? i mean DNA and chromozome stuff.

because if you take away her boobs (that any man can grow with the right hormone cocktail mix) and her long hair (that's even easier) she looks and has body proportions of a man. and ofc the power of a juiced man.

Best to ask her coach Mouratoglou as he was shagging her.

 

[Amnes2015]

Re: Re:

i can't ask this on any tennis forum because they would burn me on a cross

are there any certified reports of tests that proved that Serena Williams is genetically a woman ? i mean DNA and chromozome stuff.

because if you take away her boobs (that any man can grow with the right hormone cocktail mix) and her long hair (that's even easier) she looks and has body proportions of a man. and ofc the power of a juiced man.

Best to ask her coach Mouratoglou as he was shagging her.

any proof of that happening ?

i shagged angelina jolie. you see ? words are cheap

 

[arcus]

Great article highlighting the historic weakness of tennis' anti-doping program

http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/17693288/tennis-pristine-image-performance-enhancing-drugs-which-no-accident

 

[Zebadeedee]

Tennis is a prime example of a sport which has singularly failed to police for drugs. One can easily surmise this has happened as a deliberate policy because the sport has no excuse regarding lack of resources. Just one of its anti-doping financiers, Wimbledon, is about to spend another £75 million plus on a single covered court having already blown £100 million on another one earlier, as has the U.S. Open.

Had tennis been serious about drugs: first, Miller would have been shunted aside years ago after his now infamous remarks which sought to underplay the potential for EPO use in the game; second, they would have trapped both Ferrer and Sarah Errani red-handed as drug-using clients of Del Moral instead of sending them a lame warning letter; third, they would have aggressively expanded the anti-doping budget to at least £10 million annually; and lastly, outsourced the anti-doping work to an organisation which actually knew how to hunt and catch EPO, testosterone and HGH dopers and was incentivised to do so.

 

[ontheroad]

So Sharapova gets her ban reduced and then Head issues a tweet congratulating her!! Sponsors don't care, if it suits them and is profitable, they will throw a blind eye to cheating. A bizarre bit of PR from Head nonetheless.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

So Sharapova gets her ban reduced and then Head issues a tweet congratulating her!! Sponsors don't care, if it suits them and is profitable, they will throw a blind eye to cheating. A bizarre bit of PR from Head nonetheless.

Pretty sure Head backed her from the start so it isn't unexpected.

 

[BullsFan22]

My question is, why haven't Nadal and Williams been busted yet? Oh yeah, too much money at stake, and Sharapova is Russian, hence the bust.

 

[Blakeslee]

Re:

Great article highlighting the historic weakness of tennis' anti-doping program

http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/17693288/tennis-pristine-image-performance-enhancing-drugs-which-no-accident

An excellent article, it is great to see something like this on one of the major sports media outlets. The fact alone that there has never been an EPO positive is damning (especially considering the quote from Courier suspected EPO use all the way back in 1999) and shows just how weak the testing program in tennis is.

 

[arcus]

Re: Re:

Great article highlighting the historic weakness of tennis' anti-doping program

http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/17693288/tennis-pristine-image-performance-enhancing-drugs-which-no-accident

An excellent article, it is great to see something like this on one of the major sports media outlets. The fact alone that there has never been an EPO positive is damning (especially considering the quote from Courier suspected EPO use all the way back in 1999) and shows just how weak the testing program in tennis is.

Testing so few samples and micro-dosing make detection pretty much impossible for a savvy or well-advised athlete.
I recall looking at WADA annual testing results across all sports over 2 consecutive years and was struck that there was only one positive hGH AAF. That has to be test-failure, rather than lack of usage.

 

[arcus]

Maria Sharapova may sue International Tennis Federation after drug ban is reduced to 15 months.

In a conference call this afternoon, Sharapova’s lawyer, John Haggerty, claimed the ruling as a triumph. “The CAS decision is a stunning repudiation of the ITF,” he said, “and it exposes the ITF decision for what it is: pure fiction. Haggerty went on to add that “Maria was forced to live with the ITF’s bad judgment and faulty conclusions for many months” – a claim which presumably underlies the putative lawsuit which he and his colleagues are understood to be preparing.

Haven't seen hubris like this since Lance..........

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2016/10/04/maria-sharapova-appeal-verdict-will-the-court-of-arbitration-for1/

 

[robow7]

Maria is a cash cow to the WTA and because of the miserable state of the current women's play, with few owning any star power available to sell their product, they need her back in the game asap and weren't ready for her to retire.

 

[Benotti69]

Maria is a cash cow to the WTA and because of the miserable state of the current women's play, with few owning any star power available to sell their product, they need her back in the game asap and weren't ready for her to retire.

If Sharapova sues the ITF, you can bet she will test positive in future.

 

[Zebadeedee]

The chances of Maria Sharapova actually suing the ITF are less than zero, less even than the chances of Serena Williams or Nadal ever getting caught and banned.

 

[BullsFan22]

Re: Re:

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

Yeah, that one is really far-out, it's hard to explain how it could prescribed to anyone, let alone under those circumstances. DHEA has few legitimate clinical uses, and is inherently somewhat anabolic by itself. And of course the larger issue is that it is a precursor to the proper androgens, testosterone and DHT

The Williams sisters files also should be looked at more carefully. If an athlete wanted to dope using only commonly-prescribed drugs, that list would be a really good way. A lot of corticosteroids, plus some beta-agonists, and then, add some opioid painkillers to the cocktail, for good measure. On first examination, that looks way worse than the Sharapova meldonium issue. The difference is: that that they got permission on paper to use it...

Yes and no. Yes, Sharapova using meldonium looks 'bad,' particularly over a ten year period, but the drug was only deemed to be a "PED" winter of last year, and officially put on the doping list by WADA on january 1st, if I am not mistaken. Technically, she was using a drug that wasn't deemed as a PED, a drug that apparently has been in existence for many years.