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Tennis - Performance Drugs? Or no Performance Drugs!

Aug 18, 2007 at 12:15 PM

In recent years the World of Cycling has been turned upside down by doping cases involving all kinds of top stars, "Le tour de France" leaders and recent winners tainted with the doping question.

This got me thinking about our little world of tennis and in all fairness these questions popped up in my mind, what if:

- Police raids, like those in cycling in Italy, France, Spain or Belgium, were made at all major tournaments' Australian Open, Miami Open, Italian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open at the tennis player’s guest houses and hotels? What would the Police find? Nothing?

- Independent labs examined the blood and urine samples presented by the players rather then labs controlled either by the ATP or ITF? Would the results be different? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/2116810.stm

Since the ATP and the ITF run the drug testing programs, isn't this a bit of the case of the fox in the chicken coop? And I decide who gets eaten or not? Which some South American players often complain about.

Are drugs and doping systems like; Steroids (Anabolic), EPO, HGH (Growth Hormone), cocaine, amphetamines and some other forms of blood doping not effective in tennis? {mosmodule module=Google - Content}

Well, these and many more questions started reeling in my ever curious mind and I decided to investigate a bit and learned that:

"Blood doping is the process of artificially increasing the amount of red blood cells in the body in an attempt to improve
Athletic performance. In the past this was accomplished by a blood transfusion. The athlete would “donate” a unit of blood into storage and then 3 weeks later, after the body had completely replaced the blood loss, transfuse the unit back into the body. This would occur just before a big race, effectively giving the athlete an “extra” unit of blood. This enables performance improvements in endurance sports because of the extra oxygen carrying capacity. The practice has been outlawed. Not just because it is unfair but because of the dangers involved.

EPO has put a whole new spin on blood doping. No need for messy transfusions, just shoot up with EPO to increase your circulating erythrocyte mass. Until recently accurate testing has been difficult because the recombinant human EPO made in the lab is virtually identical to the naturally occurring form and there are no firmly established normal ranges for EPO in the body. The only previously available route to curtail cheating for sports governing bodies was to ban an athlete if the hematocrit (see side bar) level was too high (e.g., above 50%). Thus, over the past 10 – 15 years some athletes chose to cheat because, as long as they kept their hematocrit levels below 50%, there seemed little risk of getting caught. Of course the other way to get caught was highlighted in the disastrous 1998 Tour de France. Several team doctors and personnel from several teams were caught red-handed with thousands of doses of EPO and other banned substances. Ultimately about 50% of the teams withdrew from the race – either for cheating or in protest" http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/epo.html

Whoa! At this point my brain started racing at 100'000 miles an hour, boy what this could do to tennis players!?! And what about steroids?

"Anabolic steroids are drugs that resemble androgenic hormones (sometimes called male hormones) such as testosterone. Athletes consume them in the hope of gaining weight, strength, power, speed, endurance, and aggressiveness." We all know http://sportsci.org/encyc/anabster/anabster.html ....that tennis benefits from all of those!

So I went on with my digging and:

- Following on comments made by Nicolas Escude former ATP player at the French open 2002. In Paris, French Davis Cup player Escude said: "To say that tennis today is clean, you have to be living in a dream world." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/wimbledon/2071804.stm By Piers Newbery - BBC Sport Online at Wimbledon Friday, 28 June, 2002, 17:05 GMT 18:05 UK ... Have things changed?

- "SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- John McEnroe has reportedly admitted he unknowingly took steroids during his tennis career.

"For six years I was unaware I was being given a form of steroid of the legal kind they used to give horses until they decided it was too strong even for horses," McEnroe was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney on Monday." http://www.cnn.com/2004/SPORT/01/11/mcenroe.steroids.ap/

- Then I read that; "In his book ''You Cannot Be Serious'', McEnroe said he suspected that steroids and amphetamines had made their way into the top levels of the sport in the 80's. "

- This made me think about other guys, Vitas Gerulaitis came to mind and the FBI investigation on cocaine:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E7DF1438F932A0575BC0A964948260
{mosmodule module=Google - Content}
All of this got me really ticked off because I played during the Gerulaitis/McEnroe era and these guys whose games I respected and enjoyed (especially McEnroe's), were these guys after all just cheats?!...and how many more were then cheating and are the new top players cheating today as well?

Then I thought about the Petr Korda a Wimbledon steroid doping case that was aired to the press anonymously and kept under wraps by the ITF/ATP for almost 3 months since they received the results!...Are we kidding, what's the official message here?

This last question has me wondering about certain goings on in tennis of latter years that are outright disturbing.

Unless induced with illegal means, performance has a pretty much up and down curve of progress and two players that at the begining of their careers were close in their matches, the results tend to be close throughout life. When do things start getting suspicious? I'll give you an example:

- A player has 3/5 win loss against another player and plays him on clay where he has always lost and beats the other player in straight sets 6/2 6/3 in a major event.

Other examples of suspicios "progress":

- A player that is way past his prime and whose performance was in decline, all of a sudden comes to a major and wins six five setter matches playing like he's possessed by the devil, running like a 20 year old, dropping one set only along the way, with on court temperatures sometimes over 40 degrees Celsius! Spaghetti alone cannot do that, something must be in the water!

- Another tell tale sign is, if a player is too dominant for too long! As we all know there is no amount of training that can retrograde the natural cycle of regeneration of our cell system, meaning several losses in a year should be the norm for any player because of the natural low red blood cell count resulting in lack of performance, unless foul play is involved; Within a year this natural cycle of renewal repeats itself about 12 times in high and low cycles of approximately 21 days each! If a Superman exists among our tennis stars that can beat such cycles, I'm sure scientists do not believe in it!

- Players flying home in between rounds during Grand Slam events! Hum? Is this a new form of training? Boy oh boy all alarm bells and the "Big Ben" start ringing!

- A player that was winning or getting to almost every final of each tournament he played, after the "Big Ben" started ringing does not do anything for almost 8 months! Was there an official warning and the whole thing was thrown under the rug?

- The dubious presence of suspicious types on the player’s "entourage"! When the ATP has great professionals right there on site at the player’s disposal day in and day out?

How easy is it to cheat? Apparently, very, very easy!

In time I saw three major TV documentaries/interviews one with Lyle Alzedo Famous Football player LA Raiders http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Alzado_Lyle.html , then Ben Johnson (100 meters runner) Ben Johnson, "Drugs & the Quest for Gold - Broadcast in Canada by CTV and Discovery channel between July 10th and July 16th, 2004. More recently after the 2006 Tour de France I saw an interview on German TV with a Spanish ex-professional bicycle rider Tour de France level and from seeing and earing their statements and the ones of their doctors the conclusion to make is; what all athletes using performance enhancing drugs have in common is:

- Its all about when they get injected with anabolic, HGH or EPO or G.O.R.K.(God Only Really Knows!)

- If there is enough time between the drug intake and the competition, apparently they will get a clean test during the competition. (That's why Rasmussen missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico, when in fact, he was seen in Italy!)

- In interviews, athletes have declared to have year around performance enhancing drug programs with their physicians that have it all studied to the T!

- When caught they did not take anything illegal, here is an example of a great explanation by Dieter Baumann German Olympian; "that someone had manipulated his toothpaste ".... I must add ...and pigs have wings and fly, my son! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Baumann

The past BALCO controversy or the more recent Spanish blood doping (EPO) labs are two known cases of top athletes using professional cheating. One of the main culprits at the Spanish Lab Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes declared: "Treatment only for cyclists? I'm also indignant about that. I've worked with other sports, like athletics, tennis and football. There are a lot of names that haven't come out, there has been only selective leaks. I don't know why." by REUTERS Wednesday, July 5, 2006 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/05/AR2006070500199_pf.html

Is this a cover up? A selective witch hunt?

- In many cases athletes who get caught do not name others, but claim that many, if not all at the top of their sports, are using performance enhancing drugs! This is highly disturbing!

Considering that the tennis circuit and tennis business overall is in the billions of dollars, all of what I just wrote and much more which would turn this article into a book, make me ponder about the seriousness of officials in curbing performance enhancing drugs in tennis and leads me to the question:

- Should we legalize performance enhancing drugs in tennis/sports?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/weekinreview/29longman.html?ex=1187236800&en=e55ff85bba990728&ei=5070

Now lash out at me! Tell me what you think? Are the Kings and Queens of our beloved tennis tainted or is this just a figment of my altered imagination? The forum is yours...

No matter how much you are going to batter me, my next article will be:

Should we legalize performance-enhancing drugs in tennis/sports?

Final note: Sadly another sports man is under suspicion: Wednesday, August 16, 2007, " Thorpe, 24, retired from competitive swimming last November, but was dismayed to learn his test results had been leaked to the French newspaper L'Equipe, which reported the swimmer's test produced abnormally high readings for testosterone and luteinizing hormone (LH), both products figuring on the list of banned substances."

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22256056-5005401,00.html

"ASADA is alleged to have picked up the irregularity on the sample, but in another test, found the increased levels to be naturally occurring and dismissed the case. " (Why would ASADA nail one of their home boys?)

David Howman WADA's Director General of the World Anti-Doping Agency, in November 2011 declared:

David Howman who commenced work for WADA as Chief Operating Officer/Special Counsel in March 2003,

stated that:

"We are catching the dopey dopers, but not the sophisticated ones," and that "It is pathetic. We must increase quality and efficiency if we want to continue the fight." David Howman

ATTENTION: - I do not approve the use of illegal (PEDs) performance enhancing drugs by athletes or anyone. - Medicines were developed to treat people and not to be used as performance enhancing drugs. - Athletes using PRDs risk: INCREASED MORTALITY, SERIOUS CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS, THROMBOEMBOLIC EVENTS, STROKE, INCREASED RISK OF TUMOR PROGRESSION OR RECURRENCE AND MANY MORE DANGERS AND CONSEQUENCES

Updates:

2011 Robin Söderling diagnosed with MONONUCLEOSIS just before US Open!

't’s been a difficult period but I am getting better. Doctors confirmed that I have had mono for quite some time and this truly explains my lack of energy but my health is improving and I hope to be back on the court as soon as possible. - Robin Soderling at 11:47:48 am ET Sep 8th.'

Andre Agassi - Confesses to Crystal Meth Use!

"Agassi says he wrote to the ATP tour to explain the 1997 positive test and that "the central lie of the letter" was that he claimed he accidentally drank from a soda spiked with meth by his assistant "Slim."

The Andre Agassi 'revelations' do not make me even blink an eye!

After Richard Gasquet was cleared to resume playing I lost my total believe in the ITF, WADA, ATP drug programs:

The tribunal panel of three lawyers said Gasquet consumed no more than "a grain of salt" of the drug, and a long ban would be an injustice in a case that was "unusual to the point of being probably unique."

"We have found the player to be a person who is shy and reserved, honest and truthful and a man of integrity and good character," the tribunal said in its ruling. "He is neither a cheat nor a user of drugs for recreational purposes."

The ITF, which had sought a two-year ban under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Agency's code, was told to impose a retroactive ban of 2 months, 15 days. That cleared 32nd-ranked Gasquet to resume playing.

Ian Thorpe cleared on drugs

"Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) boss Richard Ings today announced they would not charge Thorpe, who returned abnormal levels to two banned substances last year. "

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22339357-5001023,00.html
*****************************************************************

"Marion Jones has given up the five medals she won at the Sydney Olympics, days after admitting she used performance-enhancing drugs.

The International Olympic Committee said it would move quickly to strip Jones of her medals after she pleaded guilty Friday to lying to federal investigators about using steroids. Jones acknowledged that she'd taken "the clear," the drug at the center of the BALCO probe, from September 2000 to July 2001." Associated Press http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/7311778?MSNHPHMA

marion_jones

Associated Press

Thursday, November 1, 2007

ZURICH, Switzerland -- Martina Hingis said Thursday she has been accused of testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon, and then announced her retirement from professional tennis. Hingis, a five-time Grand Slam champion and former Wimbledon winner, denied using cocaine. "I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous that I've decided to confront it head on by talking to the press," she said. "I am frustrated and angry. I believe that I am absolutely 100 percent innocent."

hingis

Dopped But Undetected!! Is this news? SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Olympic gold medalist Antonio Pettigrew admitted publicly for the first time Thursday that he used performance-enhancing substances during a long, successful sprinting career in which he passed all drug tests.

Example in behavior: John McEnroe was the bad boy of tennis for years on end, the ATP tour never enforced neither the code of conduct nor the drugs tests (now that we know that John was doing "a form of steroid of the legal kind they used to give horses until they decided it was too strong even for horses,") until the famous incident in Australia, when John was no longer relevant to the tour.

Guys punished, but irrelevant to the tour (or not anymore popular/attractive enough):

Cocaine: 1997: Mats Wilander, the former world No 1 from Sweden, and Karel Novacek, of Slovakia, banned for three months.

Mariano Puerta, Guillermo Canas, Juan Ignacio Chela, Stefan Koubek, Greg Rusedski, Bohdan Ulihrach, Petr Korda.

"The ATP exonerated seven players who had tested positive for nandrolone after an inquiry determined that ATP trainers had been distributing electrolyte tablets to players. The only one of the seven to be identified publicly was Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic." (Why didn't the ATP identify the other 7? Was the Nr. 1 one of them?)

"Boris Becker was quoted was quoted in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as saying: "Yes. I am not saying it had to be anabolic steroids, but coke, speed or marijuana, for sure." .

"In 1981, Yannick Noah, of France, admits taking marijuana before matches (Nothing new!)".

"Roger Federer says he is baffled by incidents of drug-taking in tennis such as the positive test returned by Austrian Stefan Koubek last week." (Roger baffled???).

ATP quote: "So far we have taken 150 different substances to the IOC lab in Cologne and they have tested every one and found nothing. As of today we still don't know why we have had about 60 nandrolone readings, of which eight have been low positives while the rest have been just trace findings."

Peter Bodo, "I think tennis has really got itself pulled together now, with the ITF taking full charge of testing," says Peter Bodo, senior editor for Tennis Magazine. "I don't think the penalties are too strict; doping is a serious offense." (The ITF the organizer/ruler of the 4 Grand Slams is going to test the players isn't this a conflict of interests).

WADA report concluded the "ATP is in an awkward position, on the one hand being an association of players composed of players who effectively own and run the association, and on the other hand trying to enforce sanctions against those same players". (Catch 22 does anyone believe in it?).

"The ATP said its trainers may have unknowingly handed out banned performance-enhancing substances but added it had stopped two months before Rusedski failed his test."

"Last year British number two Greg Rusedski was cleared of taking drugs despite a positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone after an ATP tribunal ruled he had taken the drug inadvertently in pills handed out by trainers." (A conundrum??)

"Agassi calls for apology, Agassi does not want a repeat of the Rusedski fiasco Andre Agassi has called on the ATP to apologise to Greg Rusedski if it was responsible for giving the Briton a contaminated supplement." (Oh, Oh!).

Ok, what is going on is overwhelming and the only way to fix it, is to properly fund the Anti-Drug Labs (which they are not) and make the tests at an independent lab instead of the ITF/ATP running the show and have the drug enforcement police raid the hotel rooms of players, coaches, physio-therapists, masseurs, trainers etc..like they did in the tour the France and Italy a couple of years ago. I am sure the problem would be solved..

Do tell a friend about this website it will take you just a second of your time. :-)

Sergio

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