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Tennis

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Maxiton said:
BullsFan22 said:
Maxiton said:
BullsFan22 said:
Wasn't expecting this. Not the part about her actually taking potential PED's, but the fact that they actually tested her and this was made public. Are finally getting somewhere? When will the Williams sisters, Nadal, et al be busted?

Probably political, having to do with the apparent need to take down all things Russian.

Sarcasm?

No, not sarcasm at all. Look around. Everything that projects Russian soft power in international sport is under assault. Apparently Sharapova is no exception.

Yeah. There is definitely a lot of truth in that. Seems very shady at how much the western media is trying to bring down Russia. From the Ukraine crisis, to Sochi, to social issues in Russia, to the 2015 Track and Field World's, to the Syria crisis, to the supposed widespread doping. You'd think that Putin is much worse than Hitler after what's being said and written in western (particularly US and German) media.
 
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BullsFan22 said:
Maxiton said:
BullsFan22 said:
Maxiton said:
BullsFan22 said:
Wasn't expecting this. Not the part about her actually taking potential PED's, but the fact that they actually tested her and this was made public. Are finally getting somewhere? When will the Williams sisters, Nadal, et al be busted?

Probably political, having to do with the apparent need to take down all things Russian.

Sarcasm?

No, not sarcasm at all. Look around. Everything that projects Russian soft power in international sport is under assault. Apparently Sharapova is no exception.

Yeah. There is definitely a lot of truth in that. Seems very shady at how much the western media is trying to bring down Russia. From the Ukraine crisis, to Sochi, to social issues in Russia, to the 2015 Track and Field World's, to the Syria crisis, to the supposed widespread doping. You'd think that Putin is much worse than Hitler after what's being said and written in western (particularly US and German) media.

Exactly.
 
A few thoughts: -

Sharapova claims that she had both irregular ecg's and a family history of diabetes. I find it a little too convenient that she suffers from 2 conditions that meldonium treats, it smacks of padding her excuse too much. Any docs have insight into the likelihood of the two occurring together in a super fit young women?

The earliest research on meldonium & diabetes I can find is 2009 (my google skills are poor so this could be rubbish), if it is true then the diabetes reason wouldn't have been the original reason but something tagged on 3 or 4 years after she started taking it.

Has she gone rogue from the ITF/WADA whoever? Under normal circumstances in tennis you hear nothing until much later (Cilic) but it still seems bizarre that all the media thought she was retiring not fessing up to a failed dope test. No leaks no whispers, odd.
 
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BullsFan22 said:
Maxiton said:
BullsFan22 said:
Maxiton said:
BullsFan22 said:
Wasn't expecting this. Not the part about her actually taking potential PED's, but the fact that they actually tested her and this was made public. Are finally getting somewhere? When will the Williams sisters, Nadal, et al be busted?

Probably political, having to do with the apparent need to take down all things Russian.

Sarcasm?

No, not sarcasm at all. Look around. Everything that projects Russian soft power in international sport is under assault. Apparently Sharapova is no exception.

Yeah. There is definitely a lot of truth in that. Seems very shady at how much the western media is trying to bring down Russia. From the Ukraine crisis, to Sochi, to social issues in Russia, to the 2015 Track and Field World's, to the Syria crisis, to the supposed widespread doping. You'd think that Putin is much worse than Hitler after what's being said and written in western (particularly US and German) media.

cos a significant amount of those in high positions at papers of record would be on the CIA and MI6 payroll
 
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Maxiton said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
Maxiton said:
In any case, and politics aside, perhaps a more pertinent question is, is her story right? Has she been taking this drug for ten years, and was unaware that it recently went on the prohibited list? Could that be true?

There's nothing inherently incredible about that part of her story, at least in broad strokes. She could well have been taking it for an extended period, safe in the knowledge that it wasn't on the banned list and then screwed up and not realise that it had been banned. She was after all popped at the first major tournament after the ban came in.

The idea that she was taking the drug in the first place, both before and after it was on the banned list, for reasons other than performance enhancement is, on the other hand, inherently incredible.

wrinklyvet said:
Quite simply, in the absence (so far) of any contradictory evidence, it could be.

it is of course only relevant to the question of intent. That in turn may be relevant to the question of any discretion in the sanction.

I wonder how many other players on the tennis circuit were taking this drug. Since the authorities have a list, ostensibly, of every drug taken by the players, they would be aware that she's been taking the drug for ten years. If they then suddenly ban the drug, what efforts did they make to get the word to their athlete? And if the drug's sole purpose is performance enhancement, why wait for ten years to ban it?

most of the players have actually grown weight (/grammar) or leaned up (code for froome) and found an optmimised playing weight,

Serena went 5lbs heavier in muscle. Anna Ivanovic dropped weight. Sharapova dropped about 3 lbs recently. Slamming Sammy Stosur is about 10lbs heavier than where she was a decade ago.

Who was the Italian player who beat Stosur at the French about 7 years back. She was far too lean. But great lightness for the clay season. Not the most recent Slam winning Italian.

They are all doing it. But on the hard courts, Serena is managing to play at the heavy weight and still be nimble enough and lithe enough to scamper around the court.
 
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Maxiton said:
arcus said:
Maxiton said:
arcus said:
Maxiton said:
Probably political, having to do with the apparent need to take down all things Russian.

Not really buying that... Image-wise, regardless of who she plays for, she's about as American as it comes....

She seems American to us (presuming you're American), but to Russians and Euros she is definitely Russian.

Full disclosure. I've lived in the US for >10 years, but I'm Irish-born and raised. IMO, she is more a cultural product of the US than Russia.......

She is a marketing product of the US, and marketed in America as American. In Russia, Europe, and for that matter China and probably Africa, she is marketed as Russian.

In any case, and politics aside, perhaps a more pertinent question is, is her story right? Has she been taking this drug for ten years, and was unaware that it recently went on the prohibited list? Could that be true?

yep, she is blonde to most of the marketeers[sic]

leggy and... blonde
#gauloises blondes

it is why she is actually on more money at IMG and fifth avenue than Serena.
 
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Maxiton said:
Probably political, having to do with the apparent need to take down all things Russian.


No, not sarcasm at all. Look around. Everything that projects Russian soft power in international sport is under assault. Apparently Sharapova is no exception.

Yeah. There is definitely a lot of truth in that. Seems very shady at how much the western media is trying to bring down Russia. From the Ukraine crisis, to Sochi, to social issues in Russia, to the 2015 Track and Field World's, to the Syria crisis, to the supposed widespread doping. You'd think that Putin is much worse than Hitler after what's being said and written in western (particularly US and German) media.

Exactly.[/quote]

see: Python in the World Politics thread on ... world politics.

but specifically with respect to Russia and Putin. he is the lay/not lay, person to go to here.
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3377&start=18600
 
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Re: Re:

London Hibs said:
arcus said:
A key issue (for me) is if she disclosed this as a prescribed medication on her many doping-control forms over the past 10 years (during which time she states she took the drug)... Do we trust the ITF to honestly disclose this information?

I'll say it again, as an MD, I can personally think of no legitimate reason, apart from doping, for her to be on that drug.

She lives in the US, home to some of the most excellent health care in the world. Is she really getting her primary medical care in Russia, Latvia or Georgia, the only countries where this drug is approved?

Good post.

Let's hope the Williams sisters are finally caught (and hundreds of others, but the Williams bints will do for me).
\
Williams had a thrombosis, an aneurism, a clot, or whatever, pls someone clarify, and she comes back on the full ret@rd program. tells you everything re:psychology
 
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Re: Re:

BullsFan22 said:
arcus said:
A key issue (for me) is if she disclosed this as a prescribed medication on her many doping-control forms over the past 10 years (during which time she states she took the drug)... Do we trust the ITF to honestly disclose this information?

I'll say it again, as an MD, I can personally think of no legitimate reason, apart from doping, for her to be on that drug.

She lives in the US, home to some of the most excellent health care in the world. Is she really getting her primary medical care in Russia, Latvia or Georgia, the only countries where this drug is approved?

Very good point. Also surprised to see that someone would actually disclose this information. Either she feels that this was completely legal (technically, it was, because the drug was legal prior to 2016) and should bear no consequence to previous years, or she is being as 'honest' or at least up front about a failed drug test (so soon after the failed test, what's more) and/or the WTA/ITF has been complicit and they simply want this to be over and done with and not have this episode drag tennis deeper into the ground than it already is with the betting scandal.

not suprising at all

she is leading the story
crisis management101
 
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Re:

arcus said:
This an anti-ischaemic agent being developed for patients with angina. It's not FDA approved. It is approved in Georgia (the country, not the state), Latvia and Russia. I would be frankly shocked if Sharapova is getting her health care outside of the US (where she is based). I cannot think of a valid medical reason why a healthy athlete would take, this apart from doping. Not buying the diabetes excuse. The drug increases exercise tolerance, which is why it is prohibited. It may also increase concentration.

She claims to have been using it for 10 years and didn't realize it was just placed on the banned list (need to fact-check that), but surely she would have declared it as a prescribed medicine on her doping control forms over time, and the ITF can clarify this.

Regardless, this is ennis' first big pop for years, though I suspect the "deny and obfuscate" machine will crank-up STAT.

Worth remembering that she is the world highest paid female athete


Edit: Meldonium was added to WADA's prohibited list in 2016.

big fan of Athens and Georgia. good university insular town. twilight crit is money. good bands from athens. think jim orourke was from there
 
Maxiton said:
I wonder how many other players on the tennis circuit were taking this drug. Since the authorities have a list, ostensibly, of every drug taken by the players, they would be aware that she's been taking the drug for ten years. If they then suddenly ban the drug, what efforts did they make to get the word to their athlete? And if the drug's sole purpose is performance enhancement, why wait for ten years to ban it?

She was sent an email notifying her that the drug was banned, but says she didn't read it. The drug was on WADA's watch list in 2015, if not sooner, so if she'd been following things at all, she certainly would have realized that she needed to check before continuing to use it in 2016.
 
As much money as she solely brings in to the WTA, if she has been stating for 10 years that she has been using this drug, I can guarantee you that she received special notification of the now illegal use of that particular drug, at minimum a direct call and/or a closed door meeting and not just a form letter in the mail. A form letter may have been sent to #125 in the world but not Sugarpova !
 
My money is that either it will be 6 months max or until they clear her, which very well could be in a few weeks, maybe sooner.

If she doesn't get cleared, and is suspended 6 months or more, then I think you might see some floodgates opening. Perhaps even without a suspension. I really hope a bunch of well known players go down or at least more people start seeing them as suspicious. If tennis and other professional sports want to get serious (highly doubt that) about doping and betting/fixing, they have to start taking everyone that's found to be involved, not just some psycho like Koellerer or a 'technicality' and "it was for a medical condition" Sharapova.
 
http://www.cleancompetition.org/Blog/Post/7/WADA-ADDS-PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING-DRUG-TO-BANNED-LIST-AFTER-PCC-FUNDED-STUDY

Analysis of 8,300 random, anonymous urine samples collected at doping control sessions revealed that 182 (2.2%) contained the energy-shifting drug mildronate, a substance first discovered and used in the 1980s as a cardioprotective agent.

"From an anti-doping perspective, the 2.2% rate in this study was concerning," said Dr. Larry Bowers, Chairperson of the PCC Scientific Board, "This figure represents more than twice the overall rate of laboratory findings for a single drug than any of the substances on the Prohibited List."

So more than 1 in 50 samples from elite athletes during the monitoring phase showed presence of this drug. And that's just those in the glow period, although given it wasn't prohibited then there would be a lack of avoidance of use during competition periods with higher sampling probability.

Still, that suggests at least 1 in 50 elite athletes are treating heart disease and diabetes with this drug. :rolleyes:
 
Well I liked the carpet joke.
Also I hope the whatever 'discussions' she will have with ITF will not result in a ridiculously short reduced ban, because up to now she has put an incredilbly positive PR-spin on this news and that might turn the public perception.
The fact that apparently none of her team looks at any of the banned substance related e-mails from ITF would suggest that they were otherwise playing it clean. They'd SURELY be like vultures all over it each time, if she was on a full PED program. But then again, if what you're taking has been banned for decades anyway, why bother.

There. I will be missing her death stare and trips to the back of the court between points.
 
Re: Re:

antonshipulin said:
StryderHells said:
arcus said:
Looking forward to see how her major sponsors react to this........... ;)

Supporting her in this situation is basically rowing the same boat.......

Well Nike just dropped her

**** them, did they not see those big blue bambi eyes that were truly truly sorry?
I hope she'll go with adidas after her ban is over

Yeah but she won't be back
 
Strangely enough I could almost forgive her for ingesting an obscure Latvian drug (or is it Lithuanian?) but I can't forgive her for her on-court shrieking sessions or the totally unsportsmanlike turning her back on her opponents after each and every point.

Maybe the press anticipated a retirement announcement because this has become the standard treatment for end-of-career doping positives.

Agree with Bennotti - these elite athletes are a surprisingly unhealthy bunch!
 
Sep 25, 2009
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this has nothing to do with politics or geopolitics but a geography.

only the eastern europeans used the drug and only them got caught so far, including the 2 ukrainian biathletes. a half a dozen to-date, iirc.

she like them got sloppy and now needs to face up. as i wrote in a xc ski thread, they got snatched in droves, b/c wada (but likely not the sport or a nat. fed) knew all along they were the users of the watch list drug.

once this mildronate entered the banned list in january 2016, it was a simple matter of developing a target list from a list of known names and methodically 'execute' them one-by-one. if wada really wants it, they can arrange the sudden ooc test in a way that ANY sports federation, even if they tried to cover it up, wont be able to. wada learned it lessons from clashes with some 'protectionist' federations like cycling

old habits die hard...they continued to use it in part due to typical human stupidity/complacency and in part due to a calcalution they wont get caught b/c the drug has a short half-life. this is essentially the same avoidance tactic used since forever to beat some steroid, growth hormone and other tests...

i don't think it was the only dope she used at one or another period of her career.
 
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python said:
...
once this mildronate entered the banned list in january 2016, it was a simple matter of developing a target list from a list of known names and methodically 'execute' them one-by-one. if wada really wants it, they can arrange the sudden ooc test in a way that ANY sports federation, even if they tried to cover it up, wont be able to. wada learned it lessons from clashes with some 'protectionist' federations like cycling
could nike be involved behind the scenes? some kind of contractual conflict with Maria?
I find it suspect how quickly they jump ship, when meanwhile they're still sponsoring gatlin for instance.

I agree wada can make this happen if they want. But why would wada 'really want' this?
Sure, she's russian, but this is basically an american positive.

Or is there a deeper Wada vs. Nike issue, with a damning Oregon report glooming in the background?
(clutching at straws, i know)
 

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