Reading that, I am surprised she got off so lightly.
It seems to clearly state that she was taking it as a PED before it was banned, then sentence on the basis that she is just a dopey blonde and how was she meant to know the authorities had caught up with her PED of choice.
To summarise, she’s been using the drug as a PED for years and it says in big print on the box what the active ingredient is. It’s a shame they didnt give her the full 4 years.
She claims to have taken it for magnesium deficiency and family history of diabetes? Wouldn’t a doctor in the US prescribe a magnesium supplement and a diabetes medication rather than an unlicensed drug?
I’d not be prescribing diabetes medication for someone on family history alone, unless they actually had diabetes.
Sharapova’s excuse is a lame one for taking something she should have known not to take. It’s the athlete’s responsibility to make sure they don’t break the rules; wasn’t that the justification for banning Contador for the clenbuterol positive?
And she knew exactly what she was doing, living in the US for 20 years, and with the best doctors money can buy available to her for quite some time. Yet this drug, supposedly essential for her welfare was prescribed by a Russian “family” doctor for an ailment her US doctors knew nothing about
This.
She got popped and now has to deal with the consequences. She’ll fight it, obviously, but 2 years seems very reasonable to me.
ratherbeintobago- if I was a doctor, I couldn’t see why it would be necessary to medicate based on family history alone. Seems a bit bonkers.
That was my point. If someone has a strong family history, then surveillance is probably worthwhile, but that’s not the same as starting treatment, especially starting treatment for a completely different and unrelated condition that just happens to have performance enhancing benefits.
And she knew exactly what she was doing, living in the US for 20 years, and with the best doctors money can buy available to her for quite some time. Yet this drug, supposedly essential for her welfare was prescribed by a Russian “family” doctor for an ailment her US doctors knew nothing about
especially starting treatment for a completely different and unrelated condition that just happens to have performance enhancing benefits.
… and then continuing the treatment for years after you’ve stopped working with that doctor, not disclosing it to your new team (doctors, nutritionists, agents), and not disclosing it on any of the drug testing paperwork despite being required to do so. I think she got off lightly.
It’s quite amazing that she got off with it given the very dubious nature of the defence. I wonder if she is taking a risk contesting it in that they might then change their minds as do the 4yr instead
