7 questions Maria Sharapova needs to answer about her failed drug test
Maria Sharapova seemed to be doing the right thing Monday when she called a press conference to announce she failed a drug test at the Australian Open.
Sharapova openly admitted to using meldonium, a drug that was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency as of Jan. 1, 2016. She said she was unaware meldonium, which she has been using for the past 10 years, was banned, but Sharapova admitted that she willfully chose not to read a Dec. 22 email from WADA detailing the new substances that would be banned in 2016. As a result of the failed test, Sharapova has been suspended from competitive tennis for a yet-to-be-determined period of time.
Still, Sharapova was willing to take responsibility for her own mistakes. She chose to hold a press conference on her own before the International Tennis Federation or Women's Tennis Assocation made any announcement about the failed drug test. Given that honesty and the fact most athletes aren't forthright about positive drug test results, it seemed like Sharapova was being transparent about her failed drug test.
But after closer consideration of Sharapova's story, there are many more questions for the tennis star to answer if she wants the public to believe she is being completely honest about not knowingly using a performance-enhancing drug.
Sharapova gave the following explanation at the press conference for why she was prescribed meldonium.
"I was getting sick a lot," Sharapova said. "I was getting the flu every couple of months. I had irregular EKG results as well as indications of diabetes and a family history of diabetes."
While meldonium is used to treat cardiac issues, the Latvian company that manufactures meldonium, Grindex, does not list any benefits of meldonium for people with low magnesium or early signs of diabetes on its website. It also claimed Tuesday that the recommended treatment course for meldonium is 4-6 weeks, not 10 years. That treatment course can be done in cycles multiple times per year, however. It is unknown whether Sharapova has taken meldonium continuously over the past decade or whether she has taken it in cycles.
Sharapova skirted the lone query at the press conference about a doctor, but it doesn't seem likely that the doctor who prescribed the medication for Sharapova is American, as meldonium is not FDA approved and is not available in the United States. It is only really used widely in Russia and Baltic countries.
And although Sharapova was born in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1994 when she was seven years old and trained as a young tennis player at the Bollettieri Tennis academy in Bradenton, Fla. Sharapova continues to be based out of the United States to this day with homes in Bradenton and Manhattan Beach, Calif. She has not lived in Russia for the past 22 years and only started taking meldonium in 2006, over 12 years after she left Russia.
It isn't like Sharapova only surrounds herself with Russian coaches, agents, trainers etc. either. With the exception of her father, Sharapova's coaches haven't been Russian -- they've been American (Jimmy Connors, Michael Joyce), Dutch (Sven Groenveld, Robert Lansdorp), or Swedish (Thomas Hogstedt). Her current physiotherapist, Jerome Bianchi, is French, but she also worked with Juan Reque (Spanish) in the past. Her longtime trainer, Yukata Nakamura, is Japanese. When Sharapova needed shoulder surgery in 2008, she had it done in New York.
Sharapova's history clearly shows she does not overwhelmingly use Russian resources, and she had the entire American healthcare system at her disposal. Does the United States healthcare system not have any remedies for an irregular EKG, pre-diabetic concerns or magnesium deficiencies?
If it does and Sharapova simply chose a Russian remedy instead, why go so far from what at that point had been her home for 12 years to find treatment?
Russia's reputation regarding doping is so bad that when Sharapova announced she had failed a drug test, one of the predominant reactions on Twitter was "she's a real Russian now." In that case, wouldn't an athlete who wants to stay clean be even more cautious?
When Sharapova was prescribed meldonium 10 years ago, it was legal to use in tennis. The problem started only when Sharapova did not stop taking meldonium in the new year despite having opportunities to find out that it would be banned effective Jan. 1.
Sure, this could simply be a case, as Sharapova claims, of woeful ignorance, but there are plenty of reasons Sharapova should have been extra cautious this year.
The entire Russian athletics (track and field) team is currently banned from international competition by the International Association of Athletics Federations due to widespread doping in the Russian ranks. The vote to ban Russia came in November following evidence of institutionalized doping violations which were laid out in a 335-page independent commission report from the World Anti-Doping Agency. The ban is a major story in the world of Russian sports. The Russian track team has yet to be reinstated and is at risk of missing out on the Rio Olympics in August due to this ban.
Meldonium has been mentioned frequently of late in Russia. Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko admitted Tuesday that Russia had been warned by the World Anti-Doping Agency about meldonium earlier, and according to The Guardian, Russian athletes received a memo from the Russian anti-doping agency last September about the upcoming ban on meldonium. The drug was on WADA's watch list of possible performance-enhancing substances in 2015. Russian athletes had at least four months notice to stop taking meldonium.
Given all of this, it seems strange Sharapova did not know she should stop taking the medication. It seems especially strange that she would not get the memo from the Russian officials about meldonium nor would she check an email from WADA about banned substances, which included meldonium.
Seven of the 11 athletes worldwide who have tested positive for meldonium so far in 2016 are Russian. In addition to Sharapova, that list includes:
Two of the four non-Russian athletes who have tested positive for meldonium in 2016, bi-athletes Olga Abramova and Artem Tyschenko, are from the Ukraine, a former Soviet state.
According to The Guardian, a 2015 study showed that 17 percent of Russian athletes were found to have the drug in their system compared to just 2.2 percent of athletes worldwide. That 17 percent is especially concerning given that WADA was alarmed that even 2.2 percent of athletes were using meldonium, a much higher percentage than what's found in the general population worldwide.
With all of the resources at her disposal and, presumably, an awareness of Russia's unflattering reputation in relation to doping, it's strange Sharapova would even consider using a substance that could put her in this position.
Is all of this an unfortunate coincidence for Sharapova? Or is there something more at play here? Did Sharapova know that meldonium could enhance performance? Did she knowingly decide to continue taking it after it was banned? Or was she truly taking the drug for medical purposes?
These are all questions that have yet to be answered in the wake of Monday's press conference, and the only one who can answer them is Maria Sharapova.
