The controversial meldonium was put under the banned list of drugs by the WADA on September 16, 2015, effective from January 1, 2016. Ironically Russian doctors, fitness experts and athletes compare it to Vitamin C and it was treated at the same level as levocarnitine, which is widely available and used across Russia and countries of Eastern Europe
The world’s highest paid female athlete for 11 years in a row, Maria Sharapova, admitted publicly in the first week of March that she had tested positive for ‘meldonium’ or ‘mildronate’ a drug recently banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Though she was born in Siberia, her destiny with the ball and the racket was spotted quite early. She had migrated to the US with her father who was carrying a paltry sum of $700. She was then just seven years old to start a life full of world-class brands and glamour. At the age of 11, she clinched her first deal with Nike when the sports brand had top league players across all the games. She had won her first grand slam title at 17 in Wimbledon in 2004 which put her into the league of the most sought after women tennis players of the world. Then she had come all the way to win her first US Open title in 2006, followed by the Australian Open in 2008, and the French Open twice in 2012 and 2014. Again, she won a silver medal at the london Olympics in 2012 wherein she was carrying the Russian national flag as the brand ambassador for her home country.
Today with a total of 35 WTA singles titles in her kitty and an earning (only from playing) of a whopping $36,766,149, she has exactly fallen from all the glory and grace which she has gathered up till the age of 28. Once described as “one woman marketing machine”, she was so much in demand that from clothes to beauty products to cars to shoes, including Porsche, Evian, Tag Heuer, Avon and the most favourite Nike, all desperately desired to have none other than Sharapova be their brand ambassadors.
Now let us see what is the scandal all about which has simply dragged the diva out of the court for the time beingIJ Sharapova was tested positive for meldonium or mildronate (its chemical name) after she lost the Australian Open quarter finals on January 26 this year to Serena Williams. The controversial meldonium was put under the banned list of drugs by the WADA on September 16, 2015, effective from January 1, 2016. WADA assigned meldonium an S4 classification belonging to the group of “hormones and metabolic modulators”. Some experts feel that the agency decided to ban it from the beginning of this year because of high level use of the drug by athletes for non-therapeutic purposes, mostly by East European athletes across various sports. Ironically Russian doctors, fitness experts and athletes compare it to Vitamin C and it was treated at the same level as levocarnitine, which is widely available and used across Russia and countries of Eastern Europe. It was invented in latvia by a chemist named Ivar Kalvinish in 1975.
Sharapova has been using this drug since 2006 as per the advice of her family doctor for treating various health problems, including flu. She says, “I had a deficiency in magnesium. I had irregular EKG results and I had a family history of diabetes and there were signs of diabetes.” Experts say meldonium is used to treat ischemia i. e. inadequate blood supply and resultant ailments like angina, chronic heart failure and various neurodegenerative syndromes. For athletes, it is highly beneficial as it constantly enhances blood supply to muscles. Also it helps increase endurance and fight extreme level of stress which is found in sportspersons. The inventor of the drug, Kalvinish, does not considers meldonium as doping. To him, “with meldonium, an athlete cannot run faster or farther, he is only protected from ischemia and oxygen deficiency when working at full capacity.” But Sharapova could definitely apply for a retroactive therapeutic use exemption permissible by WADA, which allows an athlete to use a banned substance if her particular medical condition demands the same. Otherwise the standing rules of WADA would disqualify a first time user up to four years for intentional use of a banned drug. The maximum penalty for unintentional use is up to two years.
Sharapova’s lawyer John Haggerty came in full defense of the tennis prodigy. “We think there is a laundry list of extremely mitigating circumstances that once taken into consideration would result in dramatically reducing any sanction that they might want to impose on Maria (Sharapova).” She should be appreciated that she did not deny the findings of the test. Even she had declared it before the International Tennis Federation (ITF) completed the whole enquiry process. While admitting the doping test, she said, “I have to take full responsibility because it is my body and it’s what I put into it and I can’t blame anyone but myself.”
Tennis is not an exception to doping. In the past, biggies in the tennis world had fallen from grace one after another; like John McEnroe, Andre Agassi to name a few. But it is entirely shocking and confusing how a disciplined team which works round the clock to mentor and manage a player of Sharapova’s stature could miss the e-mail sent by WADA alerting athletes on December 22, 2015 about the new list of banned drugs wherein meldonium was very much included. Sharapova says she did not check this particular e-mail, which also seems quite irresponsible on her part. Though the larger tennis fraternity is sympathetic about her case, yet world champions like Roger Federer urged the tennis authorities to implement a doping crackdown round the year. He says, “I still believe we should keep blood samples for 10 years, so athletes and tennis players know that’s the case, that you could get punished retroactively. I am a big believer in that.” It seems tennis world demands a total no-nonsense regulation on doping to make the game safer and cleaner than ever before.
On the other hand, the Byzantine rules of WADA and their insensitive (at times) regime of the global governance of sports must be corrected while handling doping cases like Sharapova’s. The Canada-based agency is being portrayed as another weapon to target mostly Russian athletes, hitting back at the authoritarian Putin administration for allowing full permission from the State to use the controversial meldonium. But in reality, WADA’s decisions are not anti-Russian in nature. However many experts in the anti-doping world, like Richard Ings, the former head of the Australian Anti-Doping Agency, feel, “Maria Sharapova is Russia’s most celebrated international athlete. She is a five-time Grand Slam champion. She carried the Russian flag at the opening ceremony of the london 2012 Olympic Games. She is an icon of Russian sport and her positive test is a huge blow to her personal and professional reputation. A repercussion of her positive will be a loss of confidence by the public in Russian sport.”
In the meantime, the documentary produced by German TV journalist Hajo Seppelt spearheaded the investigation into the Russian doping scandal by claiming that one in five Russian athletes used meldonium till last year. The Moscow Times reported that out of 4,316 samples drawn from Russian athletes, traces of the drug were found in 724 samples or 17 per cent, almost eight times the level internationally. Olesya Shevchenko, a former tennis journalist, quoted as saying that almost every athlete in Russia and Eastern Europe took meldonium. Apart from Sharapova, some other Russian athletes also tested positive for using meldonium are — Yekaterina Bobrova (Olympic Gold medalist in figure skating), Alexander Markin (national volleyball team member), Semion Elistratov (Olympic short track speed skating champion) and Pavel Kulizhnikov (two times world speed skating all-round sprint champion and world record holder for 500 metres). Even Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko admitted that unfortunately a lot of athletes took this medicine.
The WADA has already suspended membership of the All Russia Athletic Foundation (ARAF) in the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). It is so unfortunate that with the request of WADA, the doping samples of Russian athletes are currently undergoing tests in Britain. This is how Russian sports have been dragged into the centre stage of doping scandal and Sharapova’s case has just given the most wanted lead in the same.
As the story of Sharapova’s doping unfolds in international media, there is a bit of relief coming to her in the midst of the worst-ever crisis the star is facing in her long successful career. By the second week of April, WADA came out with the view that there is lack of scientific evidence regarding the duration of the drug on the body. With this, Sharapova and a number of athletes might get a lifeline to come out of the crisis. WADA in a clarification paper said its preliminary tests showed that it could take weeks or months for the drug to leave the body. In such cases, WADA considers that there may be grounds for no fault or negligence on the part of the athlete. let us wait and watch how the cases of Sharapova and many other tainted players unfold in the days to come.
For the first time, with Sharapova coming in the doping net, the WADA, major professional bodies in the tennis world and particularly the sponsoring giants have all come up in arms against doping. However, finally the onus falls on the individual players. It is the full responsibilities of the players who must adhere to the thin redline prescribed by the WADA and more particularly, the “ethical backpack”, they carry as a “professional”, for upholding the grace and dignity of the very game and trust of the common people, which are earned probably after years of struggling on the court. Beyond the millions and stardom, players like Sharapova, must keep in mind how she has grown big in the long sojourn from her native Siberia to the rich and glamorous world of tennis in New York. Hope the WADA, the ITF, the other professional tennis bodies, her good old sponsors (which could really earn) and millions of fans would bring back the glam girl to the court (of course after all the legal hassles are sorted out) for which she desperately appeals. “I really hope to be given another chance to play this game.” Why notIJ
(The writer is an independent analyst based in Delhi)