On Monday, Maria Sharapova had a big announcement. There was speculation about retirement, surgery, and just about anything you could think of. But, about the one thing I didn't hear people talking about was a failed drug test. And a failed drug test was exactly what Maria Sharapova announced had occurred at her press conference.
If we are to believe Maria, she was taking the now-banned substance named meldonium for the previous ten years. She claims that her family doctor had recommended this medicine, if we are to call it that, to her because she was getting flu often, had an irregular EKG, and also has diabetes, along with the all-important family history of diabetes.
Now, I'm not going to get into the speculation about how long Sharapova actually needed to take it, how it wasn't FDA approved, nor whether her true intentions of taking the substance were good enough. The ITF will do their investigation, and as of now, Sharapova is intentions are innocent until proven guilty in my mind, and this is coming from a huge Serena fan. I trust that Maria wouldn't blatantly disrespect the rules and that she would realize that she can beat the vast majority of the tour without trying to artificially enhance her performance. And maybe this is naive of me, but Maria does not seem like someone who would purposefully disrespect the game in this manner.
With that said, let me get to the brunt of my argument. I recently saw on Twitter that talked about how Maria had "guts"for holding a press conference to admit she failed a drug test. And someone else on Twitter reminded me that I read yesterday that in Serena Williams' press conference yesterday, she essentially said that Maria was very courageous for coming out and admitting that she was using meldonium. Now, do I think that Serena really believes that? Of course not, but I have to take her word for it and believe what she says and analyze based on her words alone.
But, let's be honest here, with all due respect to Serena, Sharapova's press conference was anything but courageous. At the end of the day, she broke the rules, and that's all that matters. As Sharapova stated, she was sent something linking to a list of banned substances. However, as she stated, no one on her team even bothered to look at this list, knowing full-and-well she was taking this meldonium medicine. If you are putting any sort of supplement or medicine in your body, even if you think it's approved, it would still be a good idea to check the new banned substances list. And so, I don't think her negligence should be excused just because she holds a press conference on short notice for herself.
But, beyond that, let's just take a look at how Sharapova benefits from holding a press conference to say she tested positive for meldonium. First off, Sharapova gets to spin the narrative in her direction by holding this "courageous" press conference to announce her illegal drug use. Before anything else gets out into the media, Sharapova can insert words and phrases such as "family doctor", "diabetes", "legal until this year", and "taking full responsibility" into our mind to try to put her in the best light and lessen the damage done to her image by getting out ahead of the ITF's announcement.
And I'm not saying this was a stupid thing for her to do. She has, effectively I may add, made it almost seem like she is a victim of the ITF's covert effort to trick players into taking drugs that were snuck onto the banned list. However, I think this was a necessity for her and not an act of courage or something worthy of praise. Maria Sharapova broke the rules out of negligence and put something in her body that shouldn't have been there. There is no way around this fact.
I'd expect any athlete who broke the rules to own up to it. And whether or not Sharapova called a press conference for herself or not should have any effect on how she is treated because it shouldn't matter that Maria has the resources surrounding her to be able to hold a press conference for herself, a video or a statement released the day before would have been fine, and it wouldn't have caused so much unnecessary speculation. Even a conference call with reporters on Sunday, giving them the ability to ask questions, would have been perfectly fine.
Look, I understand why Maria Sharapova got ahead of the curve and personally announced that she had taken meldonium. However, to call her "courageous", or say that she has "guts" for doing it, is a slap in the face to everyone who has actually been courageous or had guts over their lifetimes. You want courageous? A fireman rushing into a burning building is courageous. You want guts? Dr. Martin Luther King's efforts to stop segregation took guts.
So, should Maria Sharapova be praised for personally announcing her illegal meldonium use? I don't think so.
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