Doping Cases and Bans in 2023

[mpjmcevoy 362]

  On 9/14/2023 at 9:15 PM, Dragon said:

OK, I've now read the full ITIA decision on Halep and it really can't be much worse for her.

There's a strong suggestion, although it can't be conclusively proved, that she was doping since 2014.

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Sadly, for various reasons, that does not shock me.

 

I'd heard a few mumblings over the years along the lines that her determination to succeed seemed worryingly extreme. I doubt she's the only one, but if I'd been asked to pick a likely one, she'd have been on the list, and the list would have been short.

 

I guess we'll see what happens, but the judgment is pretty damning.

 

Possibly we have the first full-throated Lance Armstrong/Marion Jones level career-long cheat caught bang to rights in Tennis.

 

What is interesting now - and not a little disturbing - is the relative silence from the WTA playership. She won Grand Slams, she was world #1, she's made $40M dollars in career earnings from a career that looks to have broadly been a lie. That must be close to six figures per high level pro (top 150) on the tour.

 

Her peers should be a LOT angrier than they seem to be, Serena the notable exception.

[dullard 721]

  On 9/14/2023 at 7:59 PM, Dragon said:

 

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No surprise they hadn't collected enough samples. Anti-doping is very poorly funded in tennis.

 

  On 9/14/2023 at 9:15 PM, Dragon said:

OK, I've now read the full ITIA decision on Halep and it really can't be much worse for her.

There's a strong suggestion, although it can't be conclusively proved, that she was doping since 2014.

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I haven't read the whole report but I saw it mentioned elsewhere that they didn't pursue her in 2014 and 2017 because of a lack of data (AKA not enough samples collected). I wonder how many other athletes have been flagged in this manner but continue to compete because the anti-doping system is underfunded.

 

[NMQ 243]

Highly unlikely that she doped pre Mouratoglou if you ask me. She had different teams across all those years and this scheme was all Mouratoglou Academy. But it's been ruled out by technicalities so it doesn't matter anyway. Let's see what CAS rules, I doubt it will change the outcome.

[vlad 377]

4 or 6 years punishment for Halep means the same thing for her: end of career. About what I've read above from different users: a lot of players are dopped but they are not caught, even Nadal when he was "injured" in that year was dopped, but that case was undercover

[heywoodu 15,335]

  On 9/14/2023 at 9:26 PM, mpjmcevoy said:

but if I'd been asked to pick a likely one, she'd have been on the list, and the list would have been short.

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Well, you're being asked now, so: who else would be on that short list?  

[mpjmcevoy 362]

  On 9/15/2023 at 11:50 AM, heywoodu said:

Well, you're being asked now, so: who else would be on that short list?  

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There's another 3 in the current top 20 women that set my antennae flashing, another two I have my doubts about. So, yeah, my shortlist is 4, 6 at a stretch, but 4.

 

And if you think I'm going to publically defame them on the basis of my hunches, you're a loon!

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by mpjmcevoy

[dullard 721]

 

[Grassmarket 3,611]

 Doping Control not getting much cooperation from athletes.

 

ONLY ONE participant in the final of the men’s 100 metres; a steeplechase athlete who kept running after crossing the finish line to evade dope testing; several winners skipping the medal ceremony as they were worried about being asked to give samples.

 

The final day of the Delhi State Athletics Championship (September 23-26), at the warm-up track of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital, turned into a cat-and-mouse game between athletes and doping control officers on Tuesday.

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/dope-testers-show-up-at-delhi-state-athletics-meet-most-athletes-bolt-only-1-in-100-metre-final-8957732/#ln2p6zh0agp1yc5tz

[dullard 721]

  On 9/28/2023 at 7:21 AM, Grassmarket said:

 Doping Control not getting much cooperation from athletes.

 

ONLY ONE participant in the final of the men’s 100 metres; a steeplechase athlete who kept running after crossing the finish line to evade dope testing; several winners skipping the medal ceremony as they were worried about being asked to give samples.

 

The final day of the Delhi State Athletics Championship (September 23-26), at the warm-up track of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital, turned into a cat-and-mouse game between athletes and doping control officers on Tuesday.

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/dope-testers-show-up-at-delhi-state-athletics-meet-most-athletes-bolt-only-1-in-100-metre-final-8957732/#ln2p6zh0agp1yc5tz

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Quite an eye opening article that's worth a read because there's more scandalous details within. I guess anti-doping is so poor in India that athletes feel bold enough to turn up to meets glowing or even administer PEDs during the meet.

[mpjmcevoy 362]

  On 9/28/2023 at 7:21 AM, Grassmarket said:

 Doping Control not getting much cooperation from athletes.

 

ONLY ONE participant in the final of the men’s 100 metres; a steeplechase athlete who kept running after crossing the finish line to evade dope testing; several winners skipping the medal ceremony as they were worried about being asked to give samples.

 

The final day of the Delhi State Athletics Championship (September 23-26), at the warm-up track of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital, turned into a cat-and-mouse game between athletes and doping control officers on Tuesday.

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/dope-testers-show-up-at-delhi-state-athletics-meet-most-athletes-bolt-only-1-in-100-metre-final-8957732/#ln2p6zh0agp1yc5tz

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Ain increasingly strong argument for making membership of a specific anti-doping pool a criterion to participation - if the size of India makes it impossible, as it seems to be, to run anti-doping in a competent fashion, perhaps the only answer is to reduce the task to a small registered pool of athletes, and anyone else cannot compete internationally.