AIBU to admire Maria Sharapova

[Bolograph]

So was brave enough to become a champion tennis player while being so ill that she had to take 30 different drugs for her health, having to choose those drugs carefully so that she could protect her health without (of course!) gaining a competitive advantage.

She leant enough medicine to be able to, without any help at all, select the three of those drugs most important to her health, and was able to manage her supply of those vital health-giving drugs without telling anyone. Obviously, sometimes she got confused and forgot on the odd dozen occasions to write these drugs down on the forms she had to fill in, but then, can you imagine having been so ill you have to take thirty different drugs and then had to cut down to just three? It must have been so hard for her.

I mean, these drugs were so important to her health (that's her health) that she couldn't safely play tennis without risking her health. Her doctor told her that, for her health, she had to take

“Mildronate 1-2 X 10, repeat in 2 wks (before training or competition)”

“1 hr before competition, 2 pills of Mildronate”

“During games of special importance, you can increase your Mildronate dose to 3-4 pills (1 hr before the match). However, it is necessary to consult me on all these matters (please call)”

“30 minutes prior to a training session: Mildronat – 1 Capsule. 30-45 minutes prior to a tournament Mildronat 2 capsules”.

Imagine the worry! Before matches of special importance she had to take these special drugs, because otherwise she would literally die. Imagine how much a champion she would have been had she been born without this sad catalogue of medical conditions which required such complex treatment, especially just before matches of "special importance".

I think it's terrible that this brave woman, who managed her complex and difficult medical conditions (particularly those that might have killed her during matches of "special importance") all on her own, helped only by a mail order supply of performance boosting Latvian medicine and 29 other drugs. We should salute her, and help her win her appeal against the unjust ITF.

Alternatively, if you want a laugh, read the actual report:

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

She concealed the use of Meldonium. Took it before competing.. that says something.
She is having a laugh. A 2 years ban she absolutely deserves. She'll have more time to focus on her confectionery business.

Cosmo article suggests she has a Scandal style fixer a la Olivia Pope telling her what to say when and how to minimise the damage.

Playing tennis was such a painful ordeal for poor Ms S that she grunted and groaned through every match. What a champion.

Once I heard her pathetic pseudo-medical excuses for taking it (someone in my family had diabetes!) I lost all sympathy. This whining about the ban is pathetic. She seems to be in such a bubble that she really believes she is being hard done by.

I love the excuses athletes use when they get caught. There was a cyclist who claimed the high levels of whatever banned substance he was on we're due to his twin who he absorbed in the womb....another claimed someone at the hotel he was staying in must have been injecting hormones into his steak...

www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/07/18/10-failed-drug-test-excuses_n_1683604.html

You're welcome

I think that she should have a lifetime ban and have to donate to charity any money she earned whilst cheating her way to the top. The whole thing opened my eyes. Their initial reaction was it had only been banned recently. So sport is all about finding prescription drugs that haven't been banned and taking them for purposes they had not been designed for.

If this had been Serena or Venus they would have been crucified by the media and a lot of the tennis audiences.

Only one real difference between the proven drug cheat and the players who have been over tested yet still passed each test.

admire a cheat? Yes YABU.

in what way was her life at risk from playing tennis? I don't see that anywhere in the report.
She got rid of the doctor in 2012 that had recomended the regime of 30 different suppliments and medications, and decided to keep up 3 of them without declaring to anybody in her team that she was still taking it. She didn't declare it on the forms they sign before every tournement.

The more you read, the more evident it is that she was knowingly cheating. No sympathy, she got what she deserved.

Oh thelonggame, op was tongue cheek - read again

I was at the title, and read it and then was

airedailleurs
thanks, that was an amusing read

thelonggame the OP was a sarcastic admiration, for those reasons exactly...

Er, thelonggame, I know there's this thing where people mark sarcasm and irony with smileys for the hard of reading, but do you actually think my OP was anything other than a piss-take of a money-grabbing cheat making shite excuses for getting caught? Really? Don't read The Onion, your head will explode.

She's amazing isn't she?

To be following all those complicated medical instructions to keep herself alive for Nike. Brave soul. And the whole not dying thing.

Lol at don't read the onion.

Well-written OP - you had me thinking this was a real piece of PR infiltration.... until the end. Then I smiled

Absolutely agree with the ban. And if this had been a genuine "I didn't know" I'd still agree with the ban because the rules are the rules around banned substances, notice was given etc etc. I don't have any sympathy; caught out, simple as that.

Cycling's another hilarious example. Bravely, it consists mostly of asthma sufferers, able to compete only thanks to therapeutic use exemptions for steroids. Imagine how well someone who wasn't asthmatic might do in an almost pure-cardio-vascular sport where VO2max is the key performance differentiator? Why don't non-asthmastics get a look in?

It's bullshit, of course. They don't have asthma. But a TUE for steroids is a handy thing to have. See also professional snooker and competitive pistol shooting, where everyone has a heart condition requiring beta blockers to steady their hands.

From my understanding, this drug was perfectly legal to take until earlier this year, so to say she cheated before this time is wrong. It hasn't been proven she took any substance which was banned at the time before she got caught this year.

It's obvious she was taking this, as well as other substances as an aid to help her win, but let's face it, pretty much all elite sports people do that. They probably have a team of people advising which drugs are legal, or haven't been put in the list of banned substances yet.

Cycling a getting better, for a while there it was less about who was the best cyclist and more who has the best doctor!

great post Bolo
Of course we're all wondering, who else?

What a waste of a career.

Heard a comment on the news about the latest sprinter to have failed a drug test - 5 out of the 6 fastest men in the world have now failed a drug test.

Left me wondering about the 1 remaining, the fastest 1 I believe.

Of course we're all wondering, who else?

All of them.

Left me wondering about the 1 remaining, the fastest 1 I believe.

There are no non-doping competitive 100m runners. The ones that haven't been caught just haven't been caught, that's all.

I think all these terribly sick athletes who make it to the top are an inspiration to us all.

Just think, if all these terribly sick athletes, despite their terribly debilitating health conditions can train, compete and win, then so can we.

See you all in Rio

oops, note to self, make sure you read the post properly before commenting!

Think I need more