Maria Sharapova fails drug test

[Arn]

Maria Sharapova fails drug test: Tennis star admits failed drug test during Australian Open

Sharapova tested positive for Meldoniun in January this year

Maria Sharapova has revealed that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open earlier this year after testing positive for a substance that she has taken for the past 10 years that was added to the banned substances list on 1 January this year.

Sharapova tested positive to and admitted taking Meldoniun, a blood flow drug that was added to World anti-doping list at the start of this year. It is used medically to improve blood flow, improves exercise capacity in patients with chronic heart failure and can also give an advantage to healthy athletes.

Speaking in a press conference in Los Angeles on Monday night, Sharapova was expected to announce her retirement from the sport, but instead she revealed that the ITF had informed her that she failed a drug test in Melbourne in January.
She said: “I received a letter on 22 December from Wada for the changes next year and where the tests will be with a link to the changes for 2016 and I did not look at that list.”

When asked if she knew what the consequences are, Sharapova answered: “I do not, this is very new to me. I only received the letter a few days ago and I will be working with the ITF.
“I was first given the substance back in 2006. I had several health issues at the time, I was getting sick a lot of the time, I had deficiency in my magnesium, I had irregularities in my scans and I had signs of diabetes.”

28-year-old Sharapova has not played since suffering a fourth round defeat by Serena Williams at the Australian Open in January, having struggled with a left forearm injury that forced her to withdraw from this month’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells in California last week.

Sharapova burst onto the scene back in 2004 when she defeated long-time adversary Serena Williams to win the Wimbledon women’s singles at the age of just 17, having made her professional debut three years earlier and her Grand Slam bow at the 2003 Australian Open.
Further success would come at the US Open and French Open in 2006 and 2008 respectively, but she would have to wait until 2012 before completing a career Grand Slam after triumphing in the French Open final to ensure she would be remembered as one of the few to have won all four Grand Slam tournaments.

Sharapova added Olympic silver that year at London 2012 where she lost out in the final to Williams, and added a second victory at Roland Garros two years later that remains her most recent Grand Slam success.
However, Sharapova has also carved out a hugely successful career off the court that sees her stand as the highest paid female athlete since 2005. Sharapova has numerous endorsements and sponsorship deals as well as her own business ventures, which include the sweet company “Sugarpova” that she started in 2013 alongside candy veteran Jeff Rubin.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...rug-test-during-australian-open-a6917801.html

 

[Judge Jules]

So nobody who works for her warned her about this? Yeah, right. She should get out now and enjoy her milliions.

 

[Arn]

So nobody who works for her warned her about this? Yeah, right. She should get out now and enjoy her milliions.

I doubt that Sharapova herself knew about it. She should be banned because it is up to her and no one else to check the list every year. IMO the athlets should inform what medicine they take and then they get informed when something they take get banned. Not only present a new list. In this case they should then informed Sharapova that she wouldn't be allowed to compete until she confirmed that she stopped taking Meldoniun. That means that if the athlete fails a drug test then it is not a mistake.

I don't know how long it takes before Meldoniun get out of the body. Say that it takes three or four months and it is allowed to use it in December but not in January. Should you then be banned if you use it in December but stopped using it after it was put on the anti doping list in January? It was allowed to use it in December.

IMO it all depends on if the athlete stopped using it after it was put on the anti doping list even if they get informed a year before that it will be put on the anti doping list.

 

[Athens]

This gives me an idea for an app. Where's @Woland?

 

[Arn]

This gives me an idea for an app. Where's @Woland?

Will you name it Sharappova?

 

[Arn]

Sharapova Drug Controversy: Meldonium Explained


The revelation that tennis star Maria Sharapova failed a drug test has put the substance at the centre of the controversy, meldonium, in the spotlight.
:: What is meldonium?
Meldonium is used to treat angina and heart problems. During her announcement Sharapova referred to a family history of diabetes and said she had been taking the drug for 10 years because of that and numerous health issues.
The drug is made by the Latvian company Grindeks and is widely exported to Russia, where Sharapova is from, and several neighbouring countries as a drug for people with heart conditions. It is also offered for sale online.
The manufacturer's website says meldonium gives sufferers of heart and circulatory conditions more "physical capacity and mental function" - and a similar boost to healthy individuals.
:: How was it banned?
The drug, which is also known as mildronate, was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned list in January. It had been on the organisation's monitoring programme throughout 2015.
WADA announced the decision on its website more than three months before the ban came into force, and it was also announced by the Russian anti-doping agency.
Sharapova said she received an email from WADA linking to this information, but did not read it at the time.
:: Why was it banned?
A WADA spokesman said on Monday that meldonium was added to its Prohibited List because of evidence athletes were using it "with the intention of enhancing performance".
Studies have suggested the drug can increase a person's capacity for physical exertion.
There are signs a sizable minority of athletes were using it before it was banned.
In October the anti-doping group Partnership for Clean Competition said meldonium was found in 182 of 8,300 urine samples from athletes as part of a study.
It is not approved for use in the US, where Sharapova is based.
:: Who has tested positive?
Sharapova was the second Russian sportswoman to announce a positive test for meldonium on Monday.
Figure skater Ekaterina Bobrova told Russian agency R-Sport that she had tested positive at January's European Championships, and was ruled out of the World Championships as a result. Russian cyclist Eduard Vorganov also tested positive last month.
Swedish media reported that same month that former world champion 1,500 metre runner Abeba Aregawi had tested positive for the drug.
There have also been two other cases involving Ukrainian biathletes.

http://www.lbc.co.uk/sharapova-drug-controversy-meldonium-explained-126418

 

[Arn]

Maria Sharapova must prove she needed drug on medical grounds to avoid four-year ban


Maria Sharapova may be spared the maximum four-year ban for failing a drug test if she can prove she has a condition which requires the treatment she took, an anti-doping expert has said.

Five-time grand slam winner Sharapova announced on Monday she had tested positive for a substance called meldonium at this year's Australian Open.
Meldonium was placed on the banned list by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) at the beginning of the year, having been part of its monitoring programme throughout 2015.

Sharapova, who said she had legally taken the medication throughout her career to deal with health issues including an irregular heartbeat, will be provisionally suspended from tennis later this week and could face a ban of up to four years.
However, former UK Sport anti-doping chief Michele Verroken says the 28-year-old Russian could receive some leniency if she can prove she needed to take the drug for medical purposes.

Verroken told BBC Radio Five Live: "We were all notified back in 2014 that it (meldonium) would be part of the monitoring programme. We were given notice end of September, beginning of October (2015) that the change to the list would include this now being a banned substance rather than just being monitored.
"Certainly for all the doctors that I work with, I know that they will have been checking the list and one hopes anyone advising athletes would make sure they are updating themselves specifically at that time in order to allow for the application for what they call a therapeutic-use exemption, if that's applicable, but if not, to change the treatment.

"Now the challenge facing Maria Sharapova and her team is to bring forward the diagnostic evidence that she has a condition that required the prescription of this treatment.
"But if she can actually prove that she may get some leniency from the disciplinary panel."
Sharapova says she accepts "full responsibility'' for her actions but former British number one Jo Durie believes the Russian might have expected more help from people around her.

Durie does not believe the former world number one is a drugs cheat either, saying it was a "very big mistake" that she is going to pay the price for.
Durie said: "Everyone's shocked and it's just one big mistake isn't it from Maria and her team, who didn't pick this up.
"Maria has stood up and said ultimately that it's her responsibility, she's the athlete and she should check. But when you get to the top of your sport you are surrounded by a team of people who really should be advising you and checking and doing all these things.
"I just think it's very sad that this has happened.
"I think that Maria is, in my opinion, an honest person who's made a very big mistake; she's going to pay for it.
"I don't think she's a drugs cheat, I really don't, I think she's been caught out with something she thought was perfectly okay to take and then didn't check the lists."

http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...l-grounds-to-avoid-fouryear-ban-34520922.html

 

[dantes]

Her convenient explanation is convenient.

 

[LarryHagman]

Don't worry about it, it's women's tennis.

 

[Arn]

To My Fans:
I want to reach out to you to share some information, discuss the latest news, and let you know that there have been things that have been reported wrong in the media, and I am determined to fight back.
You have shown me a tremendous outpouring of support, and I’m so grateful for it. But I have also been aware that some – not all, but some – in the media distort, exaggerate and fail to accurately report the facts about what happened.

A report said that I had been warned five times about the upcoming ban on the medicine I was taking. That is not true and it never happened.
That’s a distortion of the actual “communications” which were provided or simply posted onto a webpage.
I make no excuses for not knowing about the ban. I already told you about the December 22, 2015 email I received. Its subject line was “Main Changes to the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme for 2016.” I should have paid more attention to it.

But the other “communications”? They were buried in newsletters, websites, or handouts.
On December 18, I received an email with the subject line “Player News” on it. It contained a newsletter on a website that contained tons of information about travel, upcoming tournaments, rankings, statistics, bulletin board notices, happy birthday wishes, and yes, anti-doping information. On that email, if a player wanted to find the specific facts about medicine added to the anti-doping list, it was necessary to open the “Player News” email, read through about a dozen unrelated links, find the “Player Zone” link, enter a password, enter a username, read a home screen with more than three dozen different links covering multiple topics, find the “2016 Changes to Tennis Anti-Doping Program and Information” link, click on it and then read a page with approximately three dozen more links covering multiple anti-doping matters. Then you had to click the correct link, open it up, scroll down to page two and that’s where you would find a different name for the medication I was taking.

In other words, in order to be aware of this “warning”, you had to open an email with a subject line having nothing to do with anti-doping, click on a webpage, enter a password, enter a username, hunt, click, hunt, click, hunt, click, scroll and read. I guess some in the media can call that a warning. I think most people would call it too hard to find.

There was also a “wallet card” distributed at various tournaments at the beginning of 2016, after the ban went into effect. This document had thousands of words on it, many of them technical, in small print. Should I have studied it? Yes. But if you saw this document (attached), you would know what I mean.
Again, no excuses, but it’s wrong to say I was warned five times.

There was also a headline that said, “4-6 Weeks Normal Treatment for Drug in Maria Sharapova Case.” That headline has been repeated by many reporters who fail to tell their viewers and readers what the rest of the story says. The story quotes the manufacturer of my medicine as saying: “Treatment course can be repeated twice or thrice a year. Only physicians can follow and evaluate patient's health condition and state whether the patient should use meldonium for a longer period of time."
That’s exactly what I did. I didn’t take the medicine every day. I took it the way my doctor recommended I take it and I took it in the low doses recommended.
I’m proud of how I have played the game. I have been honest and upfront. I won’t pretend to be injured so I can hide the truth about my testing.
I look forward to the ITF hearing at which time they will receive my detailed medical records.
I hope I will be allowed to play again. But no matter what, I want you, my fans, to know the truth and have the facts.
- Maria