An ITF tribunal today suspended Maria Sharapova for two years for using meldonium, a substance she had taken legally for years until WADA banned it in January. Sharapova immediately said she would appeal the suspension, which lasts until January 25, 2018, to the Court of Arbitration for Sports. Sharapova has been suspended since March, when she admitted to testing positive for meldonium during this year’s Australian Open. She said she had not known it had been banned. The two-year ban means the ITF found she did not intentionally take the substance (a four-year ban would have mean she took it on purpose). The ITF rules are very rigid and gave it little leeway to take mitigating circumstances into account, such as WADA’s controversial ban of the substance. The CAS previously has reduced ITF drug suspensions, including in ‘13 when Viktor Troicki’s suspension was cut to 12 months from 18 months. That same year, CAS cut Marin Cilic’s ban from nine months to four months. Sharapova in a statement on her Facebook page today wrote, “While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension. The tribunal, whose members were selected by the ITF, agreed that I did not do anything intentionally wrong, yet they seek to keep me from playing tennis for two years” (Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer). In N.Y., Naila-Jean Meyers reports Sharapova had a "two-day hearing on May 18 and 19 with a three-member tribunal." The ITF indicated that because of her "prompt admission of her violation, the suspension would be backdated to begin on Jan. 26" (NYTIMES.com, 6/8).
IMPACT ON SPONSORS: ESPN's Darren Rovell reports the ruling "could be worth a lot of money to Sharapova because of the finding that her use wasn't performance-enhancing." Her deals with Nike and Porsche were suspended in March, and they now "would be harder to sever without compensation." Other companies such as Evian and Head have "continued using her, while watchmaker Tag Heuer elected not to renew its deal at the start of this year." Meanwhile, her Sugarpova line of gummy candy and chocolate "have gained worldwide distribution" (ESPN.com, 6/8).
