How Do You Solve a Problem Like This, Maria?

However you feel about her taking a "supplement" for a decade. ... for me, the telling thing was her bullshit yesterday.

She got credit for holding a press conference and facing questions, as if that is the mark of her honesty. But what she had to say was absolute bullshit. She played it off like it was something a doctor prescribed for a medical problem -- not something she was taking as a performance enhancer.

A number of athletes have gotten flagged for using that drug since the Jan 1 ban went into effect. According to the Latvian company that manufactures it (it is not FDA approved, so isn't prescribed in the U.S), the normal course of treatment is 4 to 6 weeks. It is indicated for heart failure or unwanted heart overload. If she was on it for 10 years continually, she wasn't healthy enough to have been playing tennis for the past 10 years.

If she was really honest, she would admit that she was talking it because it aids oxygen uptake and endurance -- the reason they banned it. I don't expect to her to do that, because she is wrangling over how long her suspension is going to be, and it will be shorter if they determine it was an "honest" mistake. But then, let's admit that the line of bullshit she laid out there yesterday was bullshit.

 

And banned after Jan. 1, 2016. So she got nabbed using something that is banned by her sport. I guess she can now serve her suspension, lose all the endorsements she has been losing, etc.

My point didn't have anything to do with any of that. I was saying that the crap she said during the press conference was pure bullshit.

The "doctor gave it to me for a medical condition" thing was nonsense. And it bugged me, because she bullshitted under the guise of facing the music. If she was actually being truthful, she would have said something akin to "I have used it for years, because it gives athletes like me a real edge when it comes to endurance. I screwed up when they added it to the banned list this year, and I didn't stop taking it."

Instead, she went with a bullshit half truth (at best). Again, I get it. She wants to keep the suspension to a minimum so she has to be careful about what she admits to. But from a PR standpoint, then, don't come out and do a self-serving press conference in which you outright lie to the public (to try to make yourself more sympathetic) about why you were taking it and for what reason.

 

She certainly has been a dominant player. She has an amazing career won-loss record and dozens of career titles, including singles titles in each of the grand slams. She may not be Serena dominant, but if that is the line for dominance, there have been less than a handful of dominant women players in history.