Maria Sharapova Vs the ITF
The biggest shock wave in the world of tennis occurred on March 7th when Maria Sharapova called a press conference. Speculation mounted that she would be announcing her retirement from the sport, but instead she confirmed a positive drugs test. The former world No.1 was sanctioned after testing positive for meldonium, which was added to the list of banned substances on January 1st.
“For the past 10 years I have been given a medicine called mildronate by my family doctor and a few days ago after I received the ITF letter I found out that it also has another name of meldonium which I did not know.” Said Sharapova.
Pledging her innocence by arguing that she was unaware that the substance was illegal, the ITF took little sympathy and handed the Russian with a two-year ban. The body concluded that ‘there was no diagnosis and no therapeutic use’ to justify Sharapova consuming the substance.
Immediately after the confirmation of her ban, Sharapova submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In October the CAS reduced the ban to 15 months, despite concluding that Sharapova was at fault for not giving her agent ‘adequate instructions’. They concluded that the 29-year-old was not an ‘intentional doper’.
Days after successfully having her ban reduced, Sharapova launched an attack against the ITF. She accused the governing body of trying to ban her for four year during a TV interview in America, an allegation which the ITF denies.
Sharapova wasn’t the only player on the WTA Tour has produced a positive test for Melodium. Earlier this year Varvara Lepchenko tested positive for the substance, but escaped a ban because she could produce evidence that she stopped taking the substance ‘on or before December 20th, 2015’. Meldonium can stay in a person’s system for weeks. In Sharapova’s case, her test revelled higher levels and use of the substance in 2016.
Even now Sharapova maintains that meldonium is not a performance-enhancing substance. She is eligible to return to competitive tennis in April 2017.
