Maria Sharapova a famous athlete in the sport of tennis was recently caught using performance enhancing drugs. Meldonium is a drug that is quite often used amongst tennis players and other athletes. As of Friday the number of positive tests for the substance in 2016 across the sporting world was up to 140, this is becoming a huge problem for not only tennis athletes but athletes across all sport codes. What do we know about the substance, why was the Russian taking it and why was it banned only this year? Meldonium is used to treat ischaemia: a lack of blood flow to parts of the body, particularly in cases of angina or heart failure. It is manufactured in Latvia and only distributed in Baltic countries and Russia. It is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the
…show more content…
Whatever view you take of why Sharapova was taking the banned drug Meldonium – and the tribunal concluded that in the end she was using it to enhance her performance rather than for genuine medical reasons – the level of her incompetence in failing to realise that it was on a prohibited list is astonishing for someone who had otherwise been so professional in all areas of her life. Sharapova said she was unaware the drug had been added to the list of banned substances “For the past 10 years I have been taking a medicine called Mildronate by my doctor, my family doctor, and a few days ago after I received the letter from the ITF [International Tennis Federation] I found out it also has another name of meldonium, which I did not know,” Sharapova said, according to the BBC. She added that she had been legally taking the medicine for the past decade.Still, Sharapova isn’t the only athlete who’s tested positive for meldonium. Former European ice-dancing champion Ekaterina Bobrova told Russian media in March that she’d failed a test for drug as well, the AP
Whatever view you take of why Sharapova was taking the banned drug Meldonium – and the tribunal concluded that in the end she was using it to enhance her performance rather than for genuine medical reasons – the level of her incompetence in failing to realise that it was on a prohibited list is astonishing for someone who had otherwise been so professional in all areas of her life. Sharapova said she was unaware the drug had been added to the list of banned substances “For the past 10 years I have been taking a medicine called Mildronate by my doctor, my family doctor, and a few days ago after I received the letter from the ITF [International Tennis Federation] I found out it also has another name of meldonium, which I did not know,” Sharapova said, according to the BBC. She added that she had been legally taking the medicine for the past decade.Still, Sharapova isn’t the only athlete who’s tested positive for meldonium. Former European ice-dancing champion Ekaterina Bobrova told Russian media in March that she’d failed a test for drug as well, the AP