It’s official:
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) can confirm that an independent tribunal has suspended Romanian tennis player Simona Halep for a period of four years following breaches of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP).
The ruling is shady as fuck, but never mind that. I want to point out something else.
Check out this stupid bitch:
Not so fast Magilla.
Simona won fair and square the 2019 Wimbledon final. Simona tested positive for a banned substance only in 2022 – and for only 1 substance, roxadustat, which is ridiculously overrated as a performance enhancement drug.
Some statistics.
In 2019 Simona was tested 10 times in competition and 17 times out of competition. 0 doping.
The same year, Serena was tested 6 times in competition and 5 times out of competition. Also 0 doping.
BUT.
Serena used banned substances many times before 2019 – “legally”.
You see, some of these pesky banned substances are actually allowed to be used by certain players; important players; players that can generate a shitload of money. These special players get “therapeutic use exceptions”.
So here’s what Serena took for her “therapy”:
Serena Williams’ Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs)
Date for use/Date given/Substance*Oct 2010 – Mar 2011/23 Dec/Hydromorphone
*Dec 2010/23 Dec/Oxycodone
*Nov 27-Dec 1 2010/23 Dec/Methylprednisolone
*12-19 Mar 2014/13th Mar/Prednisone
*21-30 Mar 2014/2 Apr/Prednisone
*7-21 May 2014/8 May/Prednisone
*10-17 Nov 2014/3 Dec/Prednisone, Oxycodone
*5-10 June 2015/8 Jun/Prednisolone
Everything on this list is BANNED.
Moreover:
Most of these TUEs were retroactive, meaning that they allow use of the banned substance prior to the granting of the TUE. In a few, the delay is just a day, while others are two weeks or more.
If Russian hackers hadn’t revealed this list, we wouldn’t have known about it.
I smell corruption. Can you smell it too?
