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** Masha News and Articles! ** Vol. 4

248K views 5K replies 167 participants last post by  SquirrelPova 
#1 ·
Hi everyone :wavey:

Thought maybe we could use a thread here to post all the news, interviews, and articles we find on Masha. :)

I just got my new Tennis Week magazine and Maria is on the cover again (she was also on the March cover). :eek:

If they haven't been posted already, I'll scan in the pics and article and post them here later.
 
#5 ·
ESPNTennis Conference Call with Chrissie Evert, Brad Gilbert & Patrick McEnroe

ESPN tennis analysts Chrissie Evert, Brad Gilbert and Patrick McEnroe spoke with media Tuesday about a wide variety of tennis topics to preview the French Open...

......

Q. I had two questions. First, on Novak, who from a match-up perspective is the toughest match for him, and do you view anything of the lefty factor that Vesely beat him, that Lopez was up on him and that years ago Melzer beat him in Paris? And the second thing is on Maria, if the suspension was a year or more, what is the biggest challenge and repercussion for her and for the WTA?

PATRICK McENROE: ...So I would put those two as the two players, and then as far as Maria goes, I think that even if she gets off sort of somewhat easily, I think she may be able to come back late this year. I’m just guessing. But it’s not going to be easy either way to come back, off for this long for any player, but particularly a player who’s toward the tail end of her career. But she seems extremely motivated to come back, and I’m sure she’s keeping herself as fit as she can. You know, she’s certainly capable of coming back reasonably quickly.

BRAD GILBERT: ...And on Maria, I think the toughest challenge for her bar none will be whenever she does come back, let’s say it’s Australian Open 2017, maybe it’s later in the year, she’s going to be ranked very low. She’s going to be unseeded. So you’re at the mercy of the draw, and it could take her three to six months to get form and get her way back, and believe me, a lot of players won’t feel sorry for her, especially that a lot of them that she’s owned, and a lot of them will be looking to get a win back against her, especially if they’ve barely ever beaten her. It’s an opportunity for players maybe to get her when her confidence isn’t quite there, and she’ll be at the mercy of the draw being unseeded.

CHRISSIE EVERT: I think at 29, time is running out for Maria, because look, when she started in her teens playing full schedules, I think that motivation and hunger — hunger even more so has always motivated her to go out and play, and that’s what we’ve admired in her so much is the intense hunger that she’s had. And now that she’s getting a taste of real life, she seems to — I’m seeing Tweets she’s out and about and traveling and going to premiers and modeling, and she’s everywhere, and I think that if she gets a little taste of the good life, who knows if she’s going to come back as hungry. I don’t know. Maybe she’ll have a little bit different attitude. But at 29 years old, and the players are getting better and better, and Maria, if you look at her results the past few years, she’s having more and more losses to players that are ranked below her, and I think she was starting to kind of get a little fragile anyway when this happened early this year. I think it’s going to be tough. But if she comes back hungry and mentally as strong as she always has been, again, she’ll probably — nothing she can do will surprise me, but at the same time, I just wonder just about how much tennis she’s played in her career and the players getting better. You know, I doubt whether she can get back to No. 2.

......

ESPNTennis Conference Call with Chrissie Evert, Brad Gilbert & Patrick McEnroe - ESPN MediaZone
 
#6 ·
CHRISSIE EVERT:...And now that she’s getting a taste of real life, she seems to — I’m seeing Tweets she’s out and about and traveling and going to premiers and modeling, and she’s everywhere, and I think that if she gets a little taste of the good life, who knows if she’s going to come back as hungry.
This must be the most irritating comment on her from a tennis legend.
 
#11 ·
I don't question Maria's hunger. I think she'll be extremely motivated to win again and shove it in people's faces. And she'll be playing angry against certain players. The aspects to be concerned with when she gets back onto the court will be her health and, as I've said many times, her coaching. Whether it was her leg or her wrist, injuries seem to be taking much longer to heal as she gets older and you wonder how that body will still hold up when she gets back to the rigors of the tour. I know people are fond of Sven because he's been loyal and Maria really likes him a lot, but he's just not a good coach and there simply can't be any case made that he's furthered her game in any way. The decline in her tennis since he became coach is glaring and can't be denied.

Now given how horrible the quality of the WTA is, I remain confident a Maria with Sven at the helm can still be a top 10 player, even after the layoff. It will be a struggle at times, considering her ranking and long layoff, but Maria can still fight her way through most of these mentally weak scrubs on any given week. First things first, though. We need to get this suspension decided already, so Maria can get on with planning the rest of her career.
 
#12 ·
DICK POUND ON THE TOOLS THAT WADA NEEDS TO TACKLE DOPING

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Meldonium

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Mildronate’s manufacturer Grindeks argues that meldonium is used to treat health conditions such as cardiovascular and neurological diseases. If it doesn’t have a performance-enhancing effect and it designed to promote health rather than posing a risk to the health of athletes, then Grindeks’ argument that it shouldn’t be on the List appears to hold some water.

However, Pound doesn’t support the theory that in meldonium’s case, WADA got it wrong. “In the sense of identifying it as a drug to go on the list, the scientific process we go through and the consultation is huge, on an annual basis”, he argued. “There was a very clear consensus that it should be on the List”.

In April, WADA said that there have been 172 positives for meldonium since the 2016 Prohibited List, which banned meldonium, was introduced on 1 January. Many of these athletes have argued that they stopped taking the drug months before the List came into effect. As WADA’s Guidance Notice on meldonium indicated, it appears that the detection window for the drug is much longer than previously thought.

The only known scientific study on excretion times for meldonium was published on 4 May this year. The study, which was performed on ‘two healthy male volunteers’ (not elite athletes), found that meldonium exited the body in two phases – a rapid phase followed by a slower elimination phase. It could provide some support for athletes who have tested positive for meldonium, but claim to have stopped taking it before the 2016 Prohibited List came into effect on 1 January.

......

“It would probably have been better to have done those studies in advance”, conceded Pound. “Looking back with the clarity of hindsight, that would have been helpful. Once you knew you are heading towards a recommendation to add it to the List, somebody should have said OK, is this like marijuana, where it stays in your system for weeks or whatever the duration is, or is it something that is gone pretty quickly.”

Communication issue

WADA has already said that it will look at how international federations are communicating changes to the World Anti-Doping Code, after Maria Sharapova fought back against allegations that tennis authorities had warned her five times about meldonium. “In light of what we see, the communication might not have been optimal at that level”, said WADA’s Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Olivier Niggli. ““Clearly there is a responsibility on anti-doping organisations to make sure that they pass on the information”.

Pound said that WADA would consider making communicating changes to the Prohibited List a compliance feature of the Code. “We can probably do that”, he said. “One of your Code compliance checklists would be what do you do with respect to the annual List and changes to it? Or, have you communicated it to the athletes? You can certainly put an onus on the international federation to make sure its national federations do this; on the NOC to make sure that its national federations do it. That’s certainly feasible.”

......

Dick Pound on the tools that WADA needs to tackle doping | Sports Integrity Initiative
 
#13 ·
“In the sense of identifying it as a drug to go on the list, the scientific process we go through and the consultation is huge, on an annual basis”, he argued. “There was a very clear consensus that it should be on the List”.
So again the only reason they can give to put Meldonium on the list, is because "we said it should go on the list", same answer as Reedie in weedy political language.

“It would probably have been better to have done those studies in advance”, conceded Pound. “Looking back with the clarity of hindsight, that would have been helpful. Once you knew you are heading towards a recommendation to add it to the List, somebody should have said OK, is this like marijuana, where it stays in your system for weeks or whatever the duration is, or is it something that is gone pretty quickly.”
Yet that quote takes the biscuit, yeah looking back with hindsight , or even fucking foresight I would say,I guess it would have been a good idea if you'd actually done some research on this drug you've banned. This scientific process mentioned in the previous quote doesn't seem terribly, umm, scientific.
 
#16 ·
#17 ·
And there are people out there who still don't think this is a blatant witch hunt? She's the only one out of 288 still suspended? This is the biggest joke and travesty in the history of drug-related suspensions and that isn't hyperbole. How can anyone in the media look at those numbers and not be suspicious. Maria is getting railroaded hard and I've changed my mind about 6-12 months being acceptable. Any suspension longer than time already served is an injustice.

Unless there's some mystery report that reveals that Maria was found to have taken multiple banned substances, which there's no reason to believe, then there's no logical reason at all to continue this sham.
 
#30 ·
And there are people out there who still don't think this is a blatant witch hunt? She's the only one out of 288 still suspended? This is the biggest joke and travesty in the history of drug-related suspensions and that isn't hyperbole. How can anyone in the media look at those numbers and not be suspicious. Maria is getting railroaded hard and I've changed my mind about 6-12 months being acceptable. Any suspension longer than time already served is an injustice.

Unless there's some mystery report that reveals that Maria was found to have taken multiple banned substances, which there's no reason to believe, then there's no logical reason at all to continue this sham.
she's most likely the only one who took it after Dec. 31. That's why. And not because she admitted that , but because it seems her concentration level speaks for itself. Obviously if her and her team wouldn't have been so incompetent and WADA wouldn't have been a disgrace of an organization with their fucked-up study and subsequent recommendations we wouldn't be here discussing this.

Now, given that these recommendations can't be 100% reliable, is it possible that someone who took it Jan. 3 has been amnestied? Yes.

What is an injustice is that 287 athletes shouldn't have been suspended in the first place since they didn't break any rule.

About the witch hunt, yes, it's been a witch hunt in the media, but her and her team should have expected that given that they knew very well in advance:

- that Russian athletes were already in the WADA target as of last year and this is something that was publicly available
- we are in an Olympic year so the chance of something happening is higher
- the current climate against Russian athletes (I mean, media and people want the entire Russian team suspended for OG :spit: This should tell you how much weight perception and media can have on the herd )
- the way her PR people decided to target her image. This won't get you any friends once/if you are not at the top anymore.

WADA, being the money grabbing organization they are just took advantage of her/her team ineptitude. Not even in their wildest dreams they could have thought about catching the most paid athlete in the world renewed for her professionalism. Unless you go crazy conspiracy theory and you think they had a mole who fucked Pova up (and we don't want to go there, do we? )
 
#32 ·
no, what she couldn't know was that the first study was wrong. Who in their right mind can think that an anti-doping association has a wrong study in excretion time of a drug? I mean, the fact that WADA got this wrong is unbelievable. WADA should pay a fine to all the athletes involved just because of that.

So at that time, Pova did the only thing that she could do to limit the damages. And if you think they had an agenda to catch her, they would have still pulled the recommendations numbers, PC or not PC. Both Pova and WADA/ITF knew her doses from the beginning, unlike us. So she was screwed the moment her team didn't check the mail and got tested.

WADA only conceded amnesty not to catch Pova, but because they screwed up and many athletes/federation were pressing WADA since they knew they stopped taking meldonium before the banning date. WADA just tried to save its ass from a collective lawsuit there.
 
#33 ·
^^^ The only known scientific study on excretion times for meldonium was published on 4 May this year. The study, which was performed on ‘two healthy male volunteers’ (not elite athletes), found that meldonium exited the body in two phases – a rapid phase followed by a slower elimination phase. It could provide some support for athletes who have tested positive for meldonium, but claim to have stopped taking it before the 2016 Prohibited List came into effect on 1 January.

:happy::happy::happy::happy::happy::happy::happy:

So they made a "study" with only 2 volunteers, both males, undisclosed age, not elite athletes to discern the elimination time of meldonium. If all of us here in the sub-furm took meldonium and the tests afterwards we would have done a better job.

it would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad. And the media don't say anything. Oh science, where are thou?
 
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#34 ·
That would mean that there is no way to accurately estimate when the Meldonium was last taken based on the level in the sample, and it is all general guesswork. In such circumstances, the athlete should be given the benefit of the doubt as to when they say they last took the drug.
 
#40 ·
you can call me delusional as usual but i still think
- ITF's practice to hide doping cases and/or give ridiculously little bans.
- WADA's fuckup with meldonium studies.
- basically every other athlete getting away almost free for same drug.
far far outweights
- whatever level meldonium she had,
- and the indirect admission of taking it in january.

These are most important points in her case, i believe.
Therefore i'll be shocked if she gets anything more than 0-4 months (backdated to jan. 26th).
 
#46 ·
Frankly, if that is the only study of excretion rates, I would have thrown out the whole case against Maria on the basis that the people in the study were of the opposite sex. That should be enough to create serious doubt on the science of the whole case against her.
no, it's not the study they are using for their amnesty and their september final results. IIRC that study has 24 participants divided in 2 groups but I could be wrong.
 
#45 ·
Vazel : «Un passeur m'en a proposé en 2011»
L'entraîneur du club d'athlétisme de Montgeron, blogueur pour lemonde.fr, qui s'est notamment occupé de Christine Arron et de Ronald Pognon, doute de l'efficacité réelle du meldonium.

« Aviez-vous déjà entendu parler du meldonium avant la révélation du contrôle positif de Maria Sharapova ?
Je connaissais le nom commercial, le mildronate. La police en avait retrouvé en 2010 chez le docteur Galea, un médecin canadien qui s'occupe de très nombreuses stars du football américain et d'athlètes du monde entier. Mais, à l'époque, ils cherchaient de l'hormone de croissance et le mildronate, même s'il était interdit de vente aux États-Unis, n'était pas considéré comme dopant. Ce produit est utilisé depuis un peu moins de dix ans en Occident.

L'avez-vous conseillé à vos athlètes avant son interdiction ?
On n’a jamais pu en acheter légalement en France, mais on m’en a proposé. C’était au début de l’année 2011. J’ai été contacté par les réseaux sociaux. Evidemment, j’ai refusé ! A l’époque, ce n’était pas interdit par l’AMA mais il s’agissait d’un médicament. Et je n’allais pas donner à mes athlètes des médicaments dont ils n’avaient pas besoin.
Il y avait des « passeurs » sur le circuit. J’en ai rencontré un. C’est une personne qui gravite dans le milieu de l’athlétisme, plus ou moins agent. Il allait se fournir en Russie et en revendait ensuite aux sportifs.

Ce passeur avait-il des clients ? Le meldonium était-il effectivement utilisé par des athlètes ?
Je sais en tout cas qu'il avait des clients aux Mondiaux de Pékin (en août dernier)... Une ancienne athlète médaillée olympique américaine m'a expliqué qu'il était généralement utilisé sous forme d'injection intraveineuse mixée avec de la carnitine (un acide aminé que l'on trouve naturellement dans l'organisme ou sous forme de complément alimentaire, qui permettrait une augmentation de la masse musculaire et une plus grande production d'énergie) et d'actovegin(extraits de sang ou de sérum de veau déprotéiné, utilisé pour améliorer la circulation sanguine ou accélérer la cicatrisation des blessures musculaires). Un athlète français de très haut niveau, aujourd'hui retraité, m'a confié qu'il en prenait également. Selon eux, c'était pour améliorer la récupération. Et, apparemment, ils en ressentaient vraiment les effets : ralentissement du rythme cardiaque, meilleure circulation avec, malgré tout, des risques de vertiges.

Que pensez-vous du placement du meldonium sur la liste des produits interdits par l'AMA ?
Normalement, pour être sur cette liste, un produit doit remplir au moins deux des trois critères suivants : être dangereux pour la santé, être pris dans le cadre d'une conduite dopante et améliorer effectivement les performances sportives. Il n'est pas évident que le meldonium réponde à cette définition. Il n'est, a priori, pas dangereux pour la santé. Et même si on admet qu'il puisse être pris dans le cadre d'une conduite dopante, en revanche, l'amélioration effective des performances est loin d'être prouvée. Il y a eu quelques études dans ce sens, mais elles ne sont pas très convaincantes.

Pour vous, la conduite dopante, c'est-à-dire la volonté d'augmenter ses performances par ce produit, n'est pas une évidence dans le cas du meldonium ?
Peut-être davantage pour des athlètes occidentaux que pour les Russes. Attention, je ne nie pas le dopage chez les Russes ! Quand ils veulent se doper, ils savent le faire, mais avec d'autres produits, plus efficaces. Le cas du meldonium illustre à mon avis la différence d'approche entre les pays de l'Ouest et ceux de l'ex-URSS. En ex-Union soviétique, il y a toujours eu cette idéologie selon laquelle le sport de haut niveau était par principe mauvais pour la santé. Donc, en dehors de l'amélioration des performances, il faut protéger le corps et prendre des médicaments en prévention. Et je pense que le meldonium entre dans ce cadre.

Que pensez vous de l’attitude de l’AMA sur le dossier meldonium ?
Je pense qu’elle a interdit le meldonium pour faire du chiffre. Selon les derniers communiqués de l’AMA, il y a eu dernièrement 4 tests sanguins positifs pour 10.191 négatifs, ça fait moche. Avec le meldonium facile à détecter (dans les urines), l’AMA savait que cela ferait remonter les statistiques. D’une manière générale, j’observe, écoeuré, la lutte antidopage se pourrir de l’intérieur. »
 
#48 ·
Russia Says Nearly All Athletes Have Been Cleared in Meldonium Inquiry

MOSCOW — Russia’s sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, said Friday that nearly all of the Russian athletes who tested positive for the banned drug meldonium this year had returned to competition.

The notable exception is the tennis champion Maria Sharapova, who still faces a ban of six months to four years after acknowledging in March that she had tested positive for the drug at the Australian Open in January.

According to the World Anti-Doping Agency, there have been 330 positive tests this year for meldonium, a heart medication that is commonly used as a supplement in Russia.

......

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/s...s-have-been-cleared-in-meldonium-inquiry.html
 
#50 ·


:haha: again, it would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad. But but but... Pova was WARNED 5 times!!! :rolleyes:
 
#51 ·
Martina Navratilova hopes Masha gets back on the tour:

With Maria Sharapova now awaiting the verdit after her tribunal in London this week following her failed drug test in Melbourne, Navratilova admitted the Russian's absence from the French Open leaves a “hole” in the tournament.

“Of course the game misses her star quality,” said the BT Sport commentator. “When you have such a superstar missing from your sport it is a loss, but we have lots of stars on the tour, with Angeliqu Kerber winning the Australian Open, beating Serena Williams in the final of a Grand Slam which hasn't happened in a long time.

“Yes, there is a there is a hole, as there would be if Roger Federer wasn't playing anymore, but let's hope that she can get back on the tour.

“It's out of her hands now but, given the fact that there were 200 athletes that tested positive for the same drug, I think something is amiss with the communication between the drug people and the athlete.”

Martina Navratilova questions Laura Robson's decision to play French Open after serious wrist injury - Mirror Online
 
#52 ·
Has any professional spokesperson, be it player, former player, reporter etc, condemned Maria to prison like fans here in GM? So far from things I've seen most people seem to be wishing her a quick return, I haven't read anything that goes along with the hatred and anger that you find in GM. Is everyone just being politically correct?
 
#54 ·
apart from Mladenovic, Pome and Murray? Not that I know of. But really, none of these people know shit. Even Navratilova is talking shit. The fact that so many athletes tested positive has nothing to do with lack of communication, it has to do with the fact that the drug stays in the body much longer than the WADA study stated. I think people can't even fancy the idea that WADA used a botched study because it's unbelievable, but that's exactly what happened.

And here we are listening to WADA representatives talking about athletes's responsibilities... :rolleyes:
 
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