This has just rattled my cage.

Cycling has, rightly, been hammered for doping over the years. Now, a star from a major sport who took a banned substance, got found guilty, now appears to be able to just waltz back in and continue her career. I don’t think dopers should be banned for life but it really feels like she’s had almost no punishment.

I just feel for the clean players that she beat, who will never get the level of sponsorship or pay that she does.

And breath.

She’s back. And still not in any way repentant. What’s worse is the the authorities have welcomed her with open arms.

I don’t like it at all.

No one cared 5 months ago. Get over it! 😉

No one cared 5 months ago. Get over it!

Fair.

It sucks – it does rather send the message that cheats can prosper.

Agreed. It sucks.

Fans of tennis, in aggregate, don’t care about doping.

Probably most sports fans, tbh. Even us cycling fans can compartmentalise it – read the boxing thread and plenty of shouts for Joshua v Fury.

Iirc, she was caught for something that had been legal the year before?

Careless stupidity by the sounds of it. All stars in all sports will take whatever they can get away with, and anyone who doesn’t think so is very naive.

Yeah she was carelessly stupid that she forgot to stop taking the drug which enhanced her performance when the authorities recognised why people were taking it.

Just because something isn’t on the banned list doesn’t make it legitimate, and no I don’t believe all sports players’ morals are so lax.

As she was found to have unintentionally cheated then I don’t see what all the fuss is about .

What is your solution op?

She had been taking a drug for years legally. Then it was made illegal. Hardly a Lance Armstrong

What is your solution op?

As a start, how about getting her to play some ranking tournaments rather than just parachuting her straight into the big tournaments. She has no ranking points so should be asked to go and get some and not go straight in.
Next, I’d like to see some condemnation of her by her sponsors and the LTA.
And finally, I’d like her to take some responsibility. As a professional athlete you know you’re going to get drugs tested and so it’s your responsibility to control what goes into your body. She has so far taken no responsibility for this.

She had been taking a drug for years legally. Then it was made illegal. She, however, kept on taking it, using some interesting doctors to get it. Using doctors from ‘home’ when home had been the USA for decades. All this despite her ‘team’ of highly paid people around her making sure she complied with the rules.

FTFY.

What flashy says, she’s at it, has been for years. A US citizen that goes back to Russia to see a doctor? Gimme a break.

She’s a witch, burn her.

Doping should equal a life ban at the professional level. No exceptions.

Plenty professions have terminal red lines for behaviour. Profession sport needs one.

She had been taking a drug for years legally. Then it was made illegal. Hardly a Lance Armstrong

No just one of the list of high profile athletes who think PEDs are part of elite sport

A sad truism is that dopers even those caught will make more money than they would do if they hadn’t

“Ex cheat” Mr Millar seems to still be making a decent living from the sport he duped so why not her?

“Ex cheat” Mr Millar seems to still be making a decent living from the sport he duped so why not her?

I’ve no issue with her becoming a pundit

Not in favour of lifetime bans but in this case it does rather feel like she’s got away with it very lightly?.

Think sadly since Wiggo TUEsday i tend to agree with MoreCash that most pros (and a lot of high level amateurs) are probably taking anything they can get away with.

At least David Millar was repentant

I’ve no issue with her becoming a pundit

I have, they are part of the cycle of promoting dopers and ignoring the issue

Money talks. She is a big name in the ladies game and for tennis fans is a big draw, fans wish to watch her.

If she had cried on TV, sent a couple of million to charity and played some games down your local park would you be happy for her to continue?
Summary of CAS findings

she had consulted the Russian doctor who prescribed the Mildronate for medical reasons, not to enhance her performance

Yes, I’m sure that’s the reason

She had consulted a Russian doctor outside of her usual medical circle (she had actually lived in the US for her whole adult life) and never told them that she was taking the drug, the initial investigation and report states quite categorically that they believed she was taking it to enhance performance and not for medical reasons.

She has cheated the system twice, once in taking PED’s and secondly in twisting the legal process in her favour through wealth and playing the dizzy blond victim.

yeah, but cyclists are scrawny men with wiry legs and sunken chests.

She’s just GORGE and so it’s OK.

(I’m with you OP, while I can just about hold my nose long enough to ‘accept’ that it was a mistake and she wasn’t cheating for all the years she took it legally and just simply didn’t know the rules had changed, she still broke the rule and seems to have got away with it lightly, particularly from her sponsors)

She was prescribed mildronate over 10 years ago and had been taking it by another name for 5 years prior to that. 15 years. For some reason no one twigged that when WADA banned meldonium, it was one of the ingredients in mildronate. Mikdronate is not available in the US, other drugs which’re similar, are, but if you’re taking something which you know to work with your body, would you switch if you didn’t have to?

Mikdronate is not available in the US, other drugs which’re similar, are, but if you’re taking something which you know to work with your body, would you switch if you didn’t have to?

If I lived in the US I would talk to my US medical team about what treatments are available for any condition I might have, I wouldn’t secretly see a Russian doctor without their knowledge 10 years after I moved to the US.

Again the report from her initial ban is well worth reading, they are in no doubt that she took the drug for performance enhancing reasons and not because of a medical condition. The fact that it was not illegal for a time does not make it moral or reasonable.

The drug she took was legal on 31 Dec and illegal on 1 Jan, she got “caught” when, February ?

Don’t these pros have enough money to pay someone to stay on top of this stuff for them?

From Wiki.

Don Catlin, a long-time anti-doping expert and the scientific director of the Banned Substances Control Group (BSCG) said “There’s really no evidence that there’s any performance enhancement from meldonium – Zero percent.”[4]

What I don’t understand is how these super fit, elite athletes routinely take prescription drugs for medical reasons.

It would appear she took it to obtain an advantage, a bit like our Bradley…….

Don’t these pros have enough money to pay someone to stay on top of this stuff for them?

They do but then you get the kind of scenario that happened to Lizzie Armitstead. The athlete should be taking ownership of this, rather than passing the buck to a 3rd party.

Sharapova took ownership and deliberately hid the usage from her team.

Initial ITF ban report.

http://www.itftennis.com/media/231178/231178.pdf

She’s fabulously wealthy, glamorous and gives good box-office. Go figure.

32
On the evidence of her manager this use of Mildronate by Ms Sharapova was not known to any of Ms Sharapova’s team, except for her father and, from 2013, Mr. Eisenbud himself. It was not known to her coach, her trainer, her physio who was responsible for recommending recovery drinks during and post match, her nutritionist who was responsible for her food and supplement intake, nor any of the doctors she consulted through the WTA.
It is remarkable that in the documents disclosed by the player the only documents which refer to Mildronate are documents from Dr. Skalny between 2006 and 2010. There is no document after 2010 in the player’s records which relates to her use of Mildronate. Nor was the use of Mildronate disclosed to the anti-doping authorities on any of the doping control forms which Ms Sharapova signed in 2014 and 2015.

63
That leaves the issue as to why Ms Sharapova was systematically using Mildronate before matches, and in particular at the Australian Open in 2016. In the tribunal’s view the answer is clear. Whatever the position may have been in 2006, there was in 2016 no diagnosis and no therapeutic advice supporting the continuing use of Mildronate. If she had believed that there was a continuing medical need to use Mildronate then she would have consulted a medical practitioner. The manner of its use, on match days and when undertaking intensive training, is only consistent with an intention to boost her energy levels. It may be that she genuinely believed that Mildronate had some general beneficial effect on her health but the manner in which the medication was taken, its concealment from the anti-doping authorities, her failure to disclose it even to her own team, and the lack of any medical justification must inevitably lead to the conclusion that she took Mildronate for the purpose of enhancing her performance.