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Tennis

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Meldonium was added to the banned list for 2016 on the 16th of September 2015.


There is nothing anywhere to support your statement that the positive was the result of meldonium being taken before January 1

In fact




Page 3 of the link above

If you want to complain about some kind of hysteria, it would be better to stick to the facts if you want to be taken seriously

The authorities had to stop prosecuting for Meldonium in the first quarter under some circumstances because the authorities found the drug could stay in the system for months - They settled on prosecuting only if the sample was above 15 ug/ml
 
Djokovic was already a great mover and defender before 2011. He did make a big improvement but the fact that he did that on top of already being #3 in the world catapulted him into the dominant #1 position. He also fixed his serve technically, and Nadal just had a worse year in 2011 than in 2010.

Djokovic has always been a talented player, but I don't see how you can explain away the remarkable transformation he underwent in 2011. He made huge jumps in both power and fitness. What sticks in my memory is the Nadal versus Djokovic U.S. Open final where Patrick McEnroe kept referring to them as "physically redefining what was possible on a tennis court". As we all know from watching cycling when you see something superhuman like this, there's only one reason for it.
 
Djokovic has always been a talented player, but I don't see how you can explain away the remarkable transformation he underwent in 2011. He made huge jumps in both power and fitness. What sticks in my memory is the Nadal versus Djokovic U.S. Open final where Patrick McEnroe kept referring to them as "physically redefining what was possible on a tennis court". As we all know from watching cycling when you see something superhuman like this, there's only one reason for it.
I'm not explaining it away. I don't doubt Djokovic is doping at all. I'm just contesting that it was a donkey to racehorse transformation, and that Djokovic' greatest weakness became his greatest strength. There's no doubt he took it to the next level in 2011, but he was a great mover before that, and it didn't hurt at all that he fixed his serving yips that year either.
 
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I'm not explaining it away. I don't doubt Djokovic is doping at all. I'm just contesting that it was a donkey to racehorse transformation, and that Djokovic' greatest weakness became his greatest strength. There's no doubt he took it to the next level in 2011, but he was a great mover before that, and it didn't hurt at all that he fixed his serving yips that year either.

Rick these are all great points (so to speak). I just think these kinds of things were overwhelmed by the massive jump in power and fitness he made at the time.
 
Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Serena all playing well deep into their 30s. And the average American thinks we just got lucky and have had the greatest players of all time crop up together, and sustain their winning for 15-20 years.

I also love how freqeuntly John McEnroe is in the headlines for doing stupid things, but nobody really talks about his admitted doping history.

Oh well, I guess it's easier to just act like nothing is going on.
 
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Tennis is unfortunately just one of those sports where public perception says "skill" matters more than the physical. Unlike cycling where people say it's all physical over skill. This idea has permeated throughout other sports (let's not even mention gambling cheats either) & the mass public has been far too lenient on tennis, football & other ball games (& even motorsports as well).

With regards to tennis: when someone can maintain an exchange on the baseline & run, run & run without tiring (whilst hitting harder & harder), he's got a serious, real advantage. It's why no matter how suspect the results we see in cycling are, I'm way more lenient on its heroes (fallen or not, yes, including guys like Lance in spite of all his behavioral issues) because the rampant hypocrisy whereby other sports like tennis & football get a free pass makes me sick. Literally.

1998 for example was such a stupendously evocative year: Festina were dragged into court & their riders/staff found themselves literally handcuffed, whilst the French national football team (with its Juventus stars caught in their own doping scandal in Italy) were heralded as literal gods for winning the world cup... with tactics which amounted to physically crushing their opponents.
 
Tennis is unfortunately just one of those sports where public perception says "skill" matters more than the physical. Unlike cycling where people say it's all physical over skill. This idea has permeated throughout other sports (let's not even mention gambling cheats either) & the mass public has been far too lenient on tennis, football & other ball games (& even motorsports as well).

With regards to tennis: when someone can maintain an exchange on the baseline & run, run & run without tiring (whilst hitting harder & harder), he's got a serious, real advantage. It's why no matter how suspect the results we see in cycling are, I'm way more lenient on its heroes (fallen or not, yes, including guys like Lance in spite of all his behavioral issues) because the rampant hypocrisy whereby other sports like tennis & football get a free pass makes me sick. Literally.

1998 for example was such a stupendously evocative year: Festina were dragged into court & their riders/staff found themselves literally handcuffed, whilst the French national football team (with its Juventus stars caught in their own doping scandal in Italy) were heralded as literal gods for winning the world cup... with tactics which amounted to physically crushing their opponents.

My favourite explanation why a football team wins: "They wanted it more." All the time you hear players who run some kilometers more getting praised as heros, never comes a question "eh, why are they able to run more?" (apart from: coach makes them do so, because he is a better motivator or tougher dog).
The complete opposite of cycling, where you very rarely hear "he wanted it more" but immediately "how is it possible he pushed more watts?"
The difference is really striking.
 
My favourite explanation why a football team wins: "They wanted it more." All the time you hear players who run some kilometers more getting praised as heros, never comes a question "eh, why are they able to run more?" (apart from: coach makes them do so, because he is a better motivator or tougher dog).
The complete opposite of cycling, where you very rarely hear "he wanted it more" but immediately "how is it possible he pushed more watts?"
The difference is really striking.
Here we often hear the Germans won 'cause they play 90 minutes.
So often that it became a proverb.
 
It's comforting to know that even a few other folks are skeptical of what is going on, across all sports. I mean it, it really gives me a bit of peace of mind to know not everyone is happy to turn a blind eye.

I was heavily into cycling a few years back, riding, training, and watching the pros. I wasn't naive that there was/is plenty of PEDs, I just found it infuriating that road cycling was seemingly the only sport people acknowledged as having a problem.

A few years older now, less and less free time to even ride, or watch. I also know we have MUCH bigger problems in the world right now. But it still irritates me that cycling is dismissed as horribly dirty...but the vast majority of people act as if nothing at all is going on in other sports. Tennis, American football, track and field, baseball, MMA, to name a few.

Thanks for making me feel slightly less isolated, even if we're the minority standing our ground on being skeptical, that's fine with me:) Very little I do/say/think/read/believe/enjoy is mainstream anyway, so no big deal. I'm happy to not be part of The Masses.
 
Đoković turned into something else at Australian Open in 2011. He had a tough first two sets against Dodig in the 2nd round, but after that cruised. Federer had chances and actually was up in two or even all three sets but couldn’t win one of them. You could see though that Novak’s fitness and even speed was better than 2010. His shots had more venom in them.
 
It's comforting to know that even a few other folks are skeptical of what is going on, across all sports. I mean it, it really gives me a bit of peace of mind to know not everyone is happy to turn a blind eye.

I was heavily into cycling a few years back, riding, training, and watching the pros. I wasn't naive that there was/is plenty of PEDs, I just found it infuriating that road cycling was seemingly the only sport people acknowledged as having a problem.

A few years older now, less and less free time to even ride, or watch. I also know we have MUCH bigger problems in the world right now. But it still irritates me that cycling is dismissed as horribly dirty...but the vast majority of people act as if nothing at all is going on in other sports. Tennis, American football, track and field, baseball, MMA, to name a few.

Thanks for making me feel slightly less isolated, even if we're the minority standing our ground on being skeptical, that's fine with me:) Very little I do/say/think/read/believe/enjoy is mainstream anyway, so no big deal. I'm happy to not be part of The Masses.

Where are you from?

In Germany I'd say people link cycling immediately with doping, but although they rarely talk about doping in other sports I think most people know very well that it exists everywhere. Doping is a big topic in the public service broadcasting especially, also in some print media.

There is some hypocrisy, though, for instance when it comes to German athletes like Gina Lückenkemper or Konstanze Klosterhalfen (young, pleasant, girlish women seem especially excluded). Well, after the end of Nike Oregon Klosterhalfen got talked about a bit, there were doubts, but her performances and improvements were outstanding before already and nobody really raised questions in the media. Also for instance there are never questions about the German biathletes or triathletes, which is ridiculous in my opinion, since both sports are very prone to doping.
Well, still, it's not like doping doesn't get talked about; whenever there is a big sports event like athletics championships, Tour de France, Olympia, or even WC in biathlon, there is usually a documentary, interviews with anti-doping experts, reports that raise some questions. Sometimes I wonder if Germany is even the country where this topic gets the most attention, at least it's probably one where the awareness is highest, partly due to dealing with the GDR doping and the victims of that system, partly due to individual works from guys like Hajo Seppelt (or even Fritz Sörgel) I think. There are also quite a lot of movies or TV series about doping. (When football is the milieu of a tv crime series for instance you can be sure doping is a topic...):)

(There also was this study from Lotfi El Bousidi about doping among Champions league players, which in the end hardly got any attention because although about 15-30 percent of the asked players said they were doping at one point it was anonymous, so no names, so no scandal. Interestingly the number was 30% in Spain, 14-25 in Germany, which raises the question whether there is more doping in Spain or whether it is just more socially accepted so that it's easier for people to admit it to themselves.)

I think it's not so much that people here are not aware there is doping in other sports. It's just that many of them (especially the young) draw the conclusion to not watch any pro sports anymore, and the other half mostly pushes that topic aside (football viewers especially) and just don't care, they just want to be entertained.

Then there are people like my mother who isn't stupid and she would always support the idea there is doping in general in many sports, but whenever I say something about a certain athlete she is familiar with and probably has gotten used to (especially if it's a nice person) she's like "what, you really think that? what makes you think that?" and then I'm always in a dilemma, because part of her doesn't believe me and part of her does and I could push on and bring more arguments, but then she would be so disappointed and sad.

Well, at least that is my take about the situation here, others may see it differently. :)
 
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I'm an American, livin' in the U.S. Can't say I've ever really spoken with someone who understands that there is a lot of doping going on in baseball, football, tennis, track and field.

The Richardson weed situation highlights this. Everyone is outraged she got popped for weed, nobody is talking about what other drugs, such as PEDs, are in her system.

Everyone tuned in when Lance fessed up, but I think most folks felt it was isolated to cycling. Look at how quickly the PED situation went away in baseball...nobody really talks about all the homeruns being hit now...and that it wasn't long ago all the top HR hitters were juicing like crazy!
 
Tennis is unfortunately just one of those sports where public perception says "skill" matters more than the physical. Unlike cycling where people say it's all physical over skill. This idea has permeated throughout other sports (let's not even mention gambling cheats either) & the mass public has been far too lenient on tennis, football & other ball games (& even motorsports as well).

With regards to tennis: when someone can maintain an exchange on the baseline & run, run & run without tiring (whilst hitting harder & harder), he's got a serious, real advantage. It's why no matter how suspect the results we see in cycling are, I'm way more lenient on its heroes (fallen or not, yes, including guys like Lance in spite of all his behavioral issues) because the rampant hypocrisy whereby other sports like tennis & football get a free pass makes me sick. Literally.
In a sense, the skill thing used to be true to an extent in tennis- it wasn't unusual for stars in their late 20s suddenly get blown out of the water by teenagers with better reaction times back when the sport was far less of an endurance grind. For obvious reasons, the nature of the sport changed and suddenly the same four guys win every GS for like 20 years, which is ridiculous and unprecedented in the history of the sport.
 
In a sense, the skill thing used to be true to an extent in tennis- it wasn't unusual for stars in their late 20s suddenly get blown out of the water by teenagers with better reaction times back when the sport was far less of an endurance grind. For obvious reasons, the nature of the sport changed and suddenly the same four guys win every GS for like 20 years, which is ridiculous and unprecedented in the history of the sport.
Well there also used to be a lot of changes in gear which in turn affected technnique and favor younger players who were able to adapt more quickly.

Now we havent had any big change since poly strings in roughly the late 90s.
 
Speaking about technique and endurance...
Regardless of sport type (endurance or technical), fatigue causes mistakes.
Better stamina enables an athlete to achieve higher technical performances (inside the limits of talent/gift).
It reflects on training, recovery, self-esteem...
It's positive feedback.

Yes, the old defence from football fans " drugs don't help in football, because it's a skill based sport". Really, okay......being able to run for the full 90 mins, whilst your opponents tire after 65-80 mins, means more space, more chances of mistakes, etc

There's doping in most sports - but they cover it up, and the media aren't interested. However, people think cycling, athletics and a few others are rife with doping.....I wonder why that is?
 
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Where are you from?

In Germany I'd say people link cycling immediately with doping, but although they rarely talk about doping in other sports I think most people know very well that it exists everywhere. Doping is a big topic in the public service broadcasting especially, also in some print media.

There is some hypocrisy, though, for instance when it comes to German athletes like Gina Lückenkemper or Konstanze Klosterhalfen (young, pleasant, girlish women seem especially excluded). Well, after the end of Nike Oregon Klosterhalfen got talked about a bit, there were doubts, but her performances and improvements were outstanding before already and nobody really raised questions in the media. Also for instance there are never questions about the German biathletes or triathletes, which is ridiculous in my opinion, since both sports are very prone to doping.
Well, still, it's not like doping doesn't get talked about; whenever there is a big sports event like athletics championships, Tour de France, Olympia, or even WC in biathlon, there is usually a documentary, interviews with anti-doping experts, reports that raise some questions. Sometimes I wonder if Germany is even the country where this topic gets the most attention, at least it's probably one where the awareness is highest, partly due to dealing with the GDR doping and the victims of that system, partly due to individual works from guys like Hajo Seppelt (or even Fritz Sörgel) I think. There are also quite a lot of movies or TV series about doping. (When football is the milieu of a tv crime series for instance you can be sure doping is a topic...):)

(There also was this study from Lotfi El Bousidi about doping among Champions league players, which in the end hardly got any attention because although about 15-30 percent of the asked players said they were doping at one point it was anonymous, so no names, so no scandal. Interestingly the number was 30% in Spain, 14-25 in Germany, which raises the question whether there is more doping in Spain or whether it is just more socially accepted so that it's easier for people to admit it to themselves.)

I think it's not so much that people here are not aware there is doping in other sports. It's just that many of them (especially the young) draw the conclusion to not watch any pro sports anymore, and the other half mostly pushes that topic aside (football viewers especially) and just don't care, they just want to be entertained.

Then there are people like my mother who isn't stupid and she would always support the idea there is doping in general in many sports, but whenever I say something about a certain athlete she is familiar with and probably has gotten used to (especially if it's a nice person) she's like "what, you really think that? what makes you think that?" and then I'm always in a dilemma, because part of her doesn't believe me and part of her does and I could push on and bring more arguments, but then she would be so disappointed and sad.

Well, at least that is my take about the situation here, others may see it differently. :)

Haajo Seppelt clearly has an anti Russian agenda. When he starts questioning German sports, I’ll take him more seriously.
 

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