WADA’s double standards
Maria Sharapova vs Yohan Blake, et al
Dr Rachael Irving
Sunday, April 24, 2016
In 2009 a young Yohan Blake, Marvin Anderson, Lansford Green, Allodin Fothergill and Sherri-Ann Brooks bought some supplements online. The company claimed it was WADA certified. A few months after they tested positive for Methylexanamine which was not on the banned list then, but WADA claimed it was biologically and structurally similar to Tauminoheptane that was on the banned list.
Methylexanamine is said to increase the flow of adrenaline, but adrenaline is a hormone produced naturally by the response of the hypothalamus (brain) during the running process. Dr Peter Russell and I went through 100 years of scientific data trying to tell WADA that there was no real science linking Methylexanamine to Tauminoheptane then, and furthermore, it was not on the 2008/2009 banned list. At one stage I got exhausted trying to put the data together to exonerate Blake, et al. I said to Peter then I was tired and wanted out, and I remember Peter saying to me these are poor upcoming Jamaican athletes and history will exonerate us and them.
Yohan, et al were cleared then re-sanctioned — eventually they got three months (suspension). Sherri-Ann Brooks, the former Commonwealth Games champion in the 100 metres never recovered from that unfair sanction debacle. Fast-forward seven years later, Maria Sharapova, the Russian superstar in tennis, tested positive for Meldonium, a drug that stabilises the heart rate and prevents the metabolism from going in overdrive. An athlete’s resting heart rate is usually between 56-70. If an athlete can maintain that range during running or playing tennis, it means he or she is in peak form because the cardiovascular system is performing perfectly even during the non-resting state. I posit that very few if any athlete can maintain resting heart rate during any athletic event.
You can decide if meldonium is performance-enhancing. Maria Sharapova, it is said, has been taking the drug for some time because there is some family history of metabolic and cardiovascular issues. To the best of my knowledge, she has not been diagnosed with any cardiovascular or chronic disease, but it is said some family members have been diagnosed.
In September 2015, WADA sent information out that meldonium would be included on the 2016 banned list. The list with meldonium was printed and published in January 2016, therefore meldonium was officially declared banned by WADA. In March of 2016, it was revealed that Sharapova and others tested positive for meldonium. WADA and others have now declared that not enough is known about how long it takes to clear meldonium from the system. Although the drug is still banned they have decided to quantify the offence by saying if a certain amount is found in your system up to March 2016, you will not be sanctioned at this time for performance-enhancing drug.
I am totally confused by the nepotism. The drug that contaminated Yohan’s, et al, supplement seven years ago was not on the banned list; the contaminant Methylexanamine was deemed by pseudoscience then to be similar to something on the list and a young promising athlete Sherri-Ann Brooks’s career was destroyed. Meldonium was on the 2016 banned list. Sharapova admitted knowingly taking the drug. Although she has been taking the drug for years, a warning was sent out prior to the January 2016 banned list that all athletes taking the drug should desist.
Sharapova and others tested samples came back positive, indicating adverse analytical findings in February/March 2016. How can WADA and the drug-testing world say these athletes should not be sanctioned because not much is known about the clearance rate from the system of this drug. Maria Sharapova and others will not at this time be sanctioned by WADA for use of meldonium. I know in the WADA constitution there is a Medical and Research Committee that tracks drug use and do the science long before the drug is added to the list. The drug is first put on a monitoring list and rigorous scientific tests are carried out before the drug is published on the banned list. How could WADA have sanctioned some Jamaicans for a contaminant not on the list in a supplement, and then years after refused to sanction Sharapova for a drug found in her system that warning notices were sent out for months before it went on the banned list? Pseudoscience indeed!
Editor’s note: Dr Rachael Irving is senior research fellow in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences-Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, Mona.