I have to admit that I am no fan
of the Russians, or they of us. A recent BBC World News report about economic conditions
in Siberia found its reporter harassed by local officials, the subject of false
news stories on state-run television, insinuations that even the Queen was a
James Bond-like operative, claims that Britain was responsible for the Russian
take-over of the Crimea, and photos of a few old houses in Britain to “prove”
that things were just as bad in the West as they were at home. To us this is
all laughable and ridiculous, but apparently not to Russians being fed the “cold
war” rhetoric of Vladimir Putin.
Now there is even more reasons
not to like the Russians. Remember when those incredibly sculpted Olympic
athletes and women who had bodies like men were dominating the medal count in
the 1970s? It turns out that they were getting a little extra chemical “assistance.”
Things have changed since then, but only in relative terms. No more obvious
super-beefed-up, misshapen physiques, but now the less obvious endurance
tricks. Eleven athletes from Russia or its neighboring states have recently
tested positive for Meldonium, a drug produced by a Latvian pharmaceutical
company, which according to its own claims is used to treat cardiovascular
ailments.
However, no rigorous, verified
testing has proved this contention, and it is currently banned in the U.S. The
World Anti-Doping Agency began monitoring its use among athletes who continued
to use the drug well beyond its stated treatment use timeline, and found that
Meldonium actually has uses that are more beneficial to athletic performance:
It "demonstrates an increase in endurance performance of athletes,
improved rehabilitation after exercise, protection against stress, and enhanced
activations of central nervous system functions.”
We’ve heard of this kind of thing
before with Lance Armstrong, who initially used EPO therapy in the course of
his recovery from testicular cancer, but continued to use it when its
oxygen-enhancing properties helped his endurance in long-distance cycling. But
now it is tennis star Maria Sharapova who is center stage of this latest doping
scandal; the other day she called a press conference to confess that she had
just been outed by the WADA for failing a drug test that found Meldonium,
obviously hoping to contain the damage so that she won’t be banned for life.
But like Armstrong with his prolonged
use of EPO for non-medical purposes, she should be banned for life for using
Meldonium. Like Armstrong, she used the drug for
improper reasons long after allegedly needing it for medical reasons. Yes,
Meldonium wasn’t declared a banned substance until January 1 of this year, but
that was only after it was finally revealed that its benefit to athletic
performance far outstripped its alleged medical benefits. Furthermore, Sharapova
admits to having used the drug for at least a decade—which just happens to
coincide with the period in which she won all four Grand Slam titles, and with
the help of huge Nike endorsement dollars was the highest paid female athlete
in the world for all those years in a row.
And it is clear that she did so
by cheating, even it wasn’t apparent until now that Meldonium has been exposed.
We may conjecture that Sharapova used the drug to enhance her ability to
compete with stronger and more agile opponents like Serena Williams, who has
handled Sharapova easily in most of their meetings to date. Sharapova has had
few defenders, largely because of her aloof attitude toward other players (she
now barely even nods her head in acknowledgement after each of her latest losses
to Williams). She does have her
apologists, of course, like those who prefer to cast blame on her associates
for not “noticing” that she was using a performance-enhancing drug, and Martina
Navratilova, whose credibility has taken hits in the past for making
racially-insensitive comments about black athletes like the Williams sisters
and Tiger Woods. Navratilova rather amusingly tweeted that we should give
Sharapova the benefit of the doubt, because we don’t have all the “facts”—despite
Sharapova’s own acknowledgement of wrongdoing. But others, like Jennifer
Capriati, expressed bitterness that Sharapova chose an unethical road and cheated
her way to fame and fortune.
And yes, I dislike Sharapova and
other female European—usually Russian—tennis players in their cocktail dresses who
are drooled upon by even the American sports media. For years Serena Williams
has been the best tennis player on her side of the ledger, and she is an American. Yet you will find that
even Americans are much less infatuated with her than with the likes of
Sharapova. Does it have something to do with the fact that Sharapova is a
white, long, leggy blonde? Sure it does, because as has now been proved, she
was never a match for Williams on the court.
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