Tennis

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He obviously did not start doping at 35, but throughout his career.

Totally freak show that at 35 he was in better physical condition for a 5+ hour match than his 25 year old opponent.

Tennis is like the Tour de France 1998... if the Willy Voet situation never happened. The media, public & almost entire sporting world applauds supermen performing superhuman exploits & never asks "how is this possible?".
 
Ash Barty (my fav!) retires at 25 on the top of her game:
doping related???
As an Australian its well known she was struggling with life on the tour, being away from family so long and tenis being a solo sport.
She already quit once a few years ago to play cricket and always refers to her wins as a "team effort"
After she won Wimbeldon which her Aboriginal Idol Evonne Goolagong won in the 80s and than the Australian Open I think she has checked out mentally. I mean she barely left Australia during the pandemic to play.

Also could be a Henin soft ban because all athletes dope haha
 
I thought at first that it might be a Henin-like situation but given that she's already stepped back from tennis a few times, it's more likely just burnout. Not that this means she's not on a program -- I'm convinced that tennis is particularly susceptible to all kinds of shenanigans like doping and match fixing -- but in her case, I don't think it's a factor. What surprises me is why Osaka doesn't follow suit and leave the game.

You can see that a lot of players get pushed into it as kids and by the time they're in their mid/late teens it's no longer fun, but they can't get off the treadmill...
 
I thought at first that it might be a Henin-like situation but given that she's already stepped back from tennis a few times, it's more likely just burnout. Not that this means she's not on a program -- I'm convinced that tennis is particularly susceptible to all kinds of shenanigans like doping and match fixing -- but in her case, I don't think it's a factor. What surprises me is why Osaka doesn't follow suit and leave the game.

You can see that a lot of players get pushed into it as kids and by the time they're in their mid/late teens it's no longer fun, but they can't get off the treadmill...
I wonder how many of her endorsements are linked to how much she plays, probably give it up in a year or two.
 
Oh come on guys, Nadal is super clean! He would never dope!!
Ofcourse Nadal is doped to the eyeballs. But why would the rest not be?

Nadal's physical decline is much, much clearer than Djokovic.

Even if doped to the eyeballs, a big reason for him being in the RG final at 36 is still his exceptional clay court abilities and the meme level of the nextgen players.
 
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Given rare doping controls in tennis it gives a lot of freedom to dope. Not just to increase aerobic capacities (needed to withstand intense rallies) but, which is maybe more important, to regenerate between long matches. Obviously top players are kinda protected from being revealed as dopers cause the federations prefer to maintain image of clean sport.
 
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Given rare doping controls in tennis it gives a lot of freedom to dope. Not just to increase aerobic capacities (needed to withstand intense rallies) but, which is maybe more important, to regenerate between long matches. Obviously top players are kinda protected from being revealed as dopers cause the federations prefer to maintain image of clean sport.
Recovery between long rallies is more important. Just that bit of extra freshness should make shot quality higher, which just means you perform better consistently throughout a match.
 
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