Sportsmen cheat. The idealistic views of clean and healthy competition may have been thrown out of the door the day sport entered the open era. Tennis, an elite sport, may recover from the huge image hits it has taken this year, first from the Australian Open betting scandal and now the Maria Sharapova doping scandal. But Maria, a winner of grand slams and an icon of sports, as well as beauty and grace, would find it difficult to face her fraternity again with an image badly compromised by what was clearly cheating in taking a substance that only really sick people with ischemic heart condition take.
The anti-doping rules keep changing but, principally, sport has come to accept that all sportsmen indulge in substances to gain that teeny-weeny advantage which can help them vault from struggling rookies to champions and in the process become multimillionaires. Maria’s case is particularly relevant as the young Russian émigré in the US conquered a sport and became prosperous through endorsements. She is estimated to have garnered close to $200 million, besides prize money earnings which again are considerable.
Whatever she may say in her defence about taking meldonium, a drug on the 2015 watchlist but which was banned only from January 1, it is clear that she and her large support entourage have erred in not stopping its use this year. A lengthy ban would be just punishment even if the tennis world is rather more forgiving these days. The fact is we will not see Maria in the same light again as a competitive athlete. Oh! Maria!
