The devastating 33-page judgment by an International Tennis Federation tribunal that deftly skewers Maria Sharapova’s defence for taking the performance-enhancing substance meldonium and delivers a potentially career ending two-year ban concludes in almost Shakespearean fashion: “She is the sole author of her own misfortune.”
The verdict, which lambasts her manager, Max Eisenbud, for his literally “unbelievable” evidence and does not look kindly on her special pleading that she stood to lose out on millions if she was banned, also shines a light on the moral maze in which modern sport finds itself.
Maria Sharapova receives two-year ban for failing drug test
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“The contravention of the anti-doping rules was not intentional as Ms Sharapova did not appreciate that Mildronate, which contains meldonium, contained a substance prohibited from 1 January 2016. However she does bear sole responsibility for the contravention, and very significant fault, in failing to take any steps to check whether the continued use of this medicine was permissible,” it ruled. “If she had not concealed her use of Mildronate from the anti-doping authorities, members of her own support team and the doctors whom she consulted, but had sought advice, then the contravention would have been avoided.”
