One
of the world’s best female tennis players, Maria Sharapova, has been
suspended, because a medicine she has been taking legally under a
doctor’s prescription for ten years was suddenly retroactively declared
to be a prohibited substance that is a “metabolic modulator.”
The
medicine, known as mildronate and also as meldonium in its banned name,
has been in medical use for thirty years. Its inventor declared that
the prohibition of mildronate “is a crime” and will lead to deaths among
athletes. He says that it has not been proven that the medicine
enhances athlete performance, but it does protect their hearts from
over-exertion.
Mildronate
is used to treat heart problems, magnesium deficiency and diabetes.
Sharapova suffers from magnesium deficiency. There is diabetes in her
family history, and doctors saw signs that she was developing the
disease.
The
medicine is not designed to improve athletic performance. However, the
medicine does protect athletes’ hearts as they push to their limits.
Apparently it is this aspect of the medicine that caused the World
Anti-Doping Agency to conclude that the medicine facilitates recovery
from exertion and, thereby, enhances physical capabilities.
It
is immaterial to my point whether the medicine’s inventor or WADA is
correct. My point is that for a widely used legal sustance to be put on a
prohibited list for athletes, there should first be public discussion.
If the decision to prohibit the medicine is shown to be warranted, there
should be enough advanced notice provided so that athletes using the
medicine for health reasons such as diabetes or magnesium deficiency, or
to protect their heart from failing under exertion, have time to clear
their bodies of traces.
This
was not done. The medicine was added to the prohibited list on January 1
under the name of meldonium, a name that Sharapova did not recognize.
Even if she had been aware that her medicine had been banned, there was
not sufficient time between January 1 and the January Australian Open
for her to be clear of the substance. WADA’s decision was made in a way
that guaranteed that Sharapova would fail the test, a test she has
always passed in her rise to dominance of women’s tennis. Other than
WADA’s incompetence, it is difficult to read this other than WADA
accepted a bribe to eliminate Sharapova from the Australian Open and
subsequent events.
Examining
this matter from the standpoint of the facts, it is unclear whether
WADA consists of a bunch of incompetent and inconsiderate dopes who were
unaware of the medicinal use of meldonium, or whether this is an
orchestrated stunt to cast more discredit on Russia and Russian
athletes. Perhaps what we are witnessing is an attempt on the part of
less capable American and Europeans to move aside dominant Russian
athletes in order to be able to capture their lucrative endorsements.
Nike, Tag Heuer, and Porsche suspended their contracts with Sharapova.
Such cowardly behavior speaks poorly of the integrity of the three
companies. The absence of loyalty and support that the companies have
showed to their star associate raises questions about the character of
the company’s managements and the quality of their products.
As
the record proves that Sharapova’s use of the medicine is clearly for
medical, not performance, reasons, perhaps she will be reinstated by the
International Tennis Federation.
Nevertheless,
the Tennis Federation, WADA, and her sponsors have succeeded in messing
with her mind. WADA official Dick Pound, who is trying to get Russian
athletes banned from the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, demonstrated his
own lack of integrity when he seized on Sharapova to boost his
anti-Russian propaganda, declaring that she was “reckless beyond
description” and guilty of “a big mistake.” As there is no justification
whatsoever to Pound’s irresponsible assertions, it raises questions
about the integrity of WADA itself.
An
athlete’s mental state is probably more important to the athlete’s
performance than performance-enhancing drugs. I was disappointed to see
that even RT misrepresented Sharapova’s situation as “explosive news”
that she had “failed a drug test.” She did no such thing! She was
trapped, perhaps purposely, by the sudden inclusion under a different
name of a medicine she has been taking for a decade under medical
supervision.
Until
Sharapova is reinstated, competitors will benefit from less strenuous
competition. I remember from my studies of post-Roman Europe that
various rulers to the extent that they could mint coins featured the
Roman Emperor on the coins, not themselves. The reason for this, I was
told, is that people associated coinage with Rome and were accustomed to
a Roman image. To make their coinage acceptable, petty kings identified
it with Rome.
Perhaps
this is what we are witnessing today in Russia and China’s acceptance
of Western domination. The United States and Europe—the West—comprise
the hallmark of approval. Russia and China, despite their independent
power, desire this approval. The West knows that Russia and China seek
approval and denies it to them as an assertion of the West’s
superiority.
It
is not Russia and China that destroyed seven countries in the past 15
years. It was Washington and its European vassals. It is not Washington
that is accused of human rights violations that are so severe that
millions of peoples are fleeing into Europe in order to escape death at
the hands of the Americans. It is Russia’s attack on ISIS that is blamed
for the European refugee problem. It is Russia and China that are
accused of human rights violations, not the real perpetrators—Washington
and its vassals.
The
West uses disapproval as a weapon. Washington disapproved the Sochi
Olympics. While Putin was in Sochi, Washington overthrew the government
of Ukraine and created a problem for Russia. While Putin was at the
Beijing Olympics, Washington gave the go ahead to its Georgian puppet to
attack South Osetia and to kill Russian peacekeepers. Certainly, Putin
shoud not go to the Brazilian Olympics this year. Washington might
overthrow Putin in his absence. Certainly, Washington wants to be rid of
Putin, and so do the Russian Atlanticist Integrationists whose sole
ambition is to be an approved part of the West. Just as Washington had
its Ukranian puppet government lined up to take office once Washington
overthrew Yanukovych, Washington has Atlanticist Integrationists lined
up as its puppet governemt to take over Russia.
It
is ironic that it is the hallmarked West, not the disapproved
countries, that is in decline, culturally, morally, spiritually, and
economically. Why do Russia, China, India, and every other country free
of US imperial domination desire to be associated with a corrupt,
immoral, declining part of the world whose economic and political
existence depends on extending its hegemony over the remaining
productive parts of the world in order to loot the countries for the
benefit of the West?
Why are Russia and China concerned that they receive the approval of the West?
Paul
Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and
Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. Roberts’ How the Economy
Was Lost is now available from CounterPunch in electronic format. His
latest book is The Neoconservative Threat to World Order
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