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She was never going to be ready for Wimbledon this year even if the ban had overturned because she's been suspended since March. It does seem a bit of a weird decision to effectively declare her 'not guilty' and then ban her anyway! Can't see CAS taking too long over throwing it out.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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I duuno - they don't hide these things, in fact they broadcast them to all relevant parties, so there are quite a few people in her team whose job it was to be aware of what she was taking, and of what was becoming disallowed. Her "I didn't know" defence is a bit like saying "I didn't see the speed limit signs" when the police stop you for speeding. It was on the "bad" list for most of 2015.
And the medication?
"Meldonium is used to treat ischaemia: a lack of blood flow to parts of the body, particularly in cases of angina or heart failure." The Guardian[^] Can you honestly tell me that she had heart problems? And still played top-level tennis?
Or is the Wiki description more likely: "Meldonium may be used to treat coronary artery disease.[4][5] These heart problems may sometimes lead to ischemia, which is essentially not enough blood flowing to the organs in your body, especially the heart in the means of coronary artery disease. Because this drug is thought to expand the arteries, it helps to increase the blood flow as well as increase the flow of oxygen throughout the body" - which is a big boost to athletes...
As far as I can see, there aren't that many options:
1) She was cheating and knew it.
2) She was cheating and someone on her team knew it, but never told her.
3) She's an idiot and someone on her team was seriously incompetent.
4) A nurse sneaked into her room every night and injected her while she was asleep.
3 & 4 I doubt, 2 is unlikely... Occam's Razor strikes again.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Yeah, but ...
All of those scenarios are trumped by the actual decision of the tribunal. They say she didn't know, that she did not intentionally take a performance enhancing drug with a view to gaining advantage. The only thing they're pinging her for is not having someone vet the medicine that she was taking and even that's a bit shaky because if, as they say, she wasn't to know that the newly banned substance was an ingredient, why would she have reviewed something that she had been taking for years without the slightest problem? What actually occurred is, at this stage, irrelevant because the tribunal has determined that scenario 3 in your list is what happened. So they have declared her 'not guilty' of the actual charge yet they are punishing her anyway on the grounds of a procedural failure with which she wasn't charged. Moreover that punishment is not in line with the international standards for such cases taking into account that this is a first offence and according to the tribunal on a lesser offence. The CAS has, I think, no choice but to determine that that is unfair and vacate the decision.
I actually don't have a problem with believing that she has been playing with a heart condition at all. It is not at all unusual for athletes to develop heart conditions* and many of those have not been diagnosed until long after they retired. Famously there are a number of cases where the first and only 'symptom' has been dropping dead! If they stayed in competition not knowing they had a problem then why should someone who has been diagnosed and received appropriate treatment be less able to do so? Frankly sport would more or less cease altogether if everything wrong with athletes was to be considered career ending! They may be fit but they're not healthy!
* A European Society of Cardiology study of more than 2000 athletes eligible for the summer and winter Olympic games and screened for cardiovascular health revealed an unexpectedly high prevalence of cardiovascular conditions, some of which were considered as very serious threats to health.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Cool stuff! Where do I get some? 
Will Rogers never met me.
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Miss Grunty probably has a pile of back stock she can't use! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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So, she took performance enhancing drugs and Serena still beat her day in day out.
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Might explain why she didn't stop taking them?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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They can't do a drugs test on Serena because her c0ck doesn't fit in the bottle.
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And Maria's does ?
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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Except there's no evidence Meldonium is a performance enhancing drug.
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It helps endurance and speed up recovery. (the last part is the most important IMO, if you can recover faster than your next match, then you will be in better shape to win.
I'd rather be phishing!
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The articles I read said that hasn't been proven (which raises the question of whether it really does anything at all.)
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I think there's less evidence for that than you imagine but, even so, if Sharapova does have an ischemic condition, and that is surely easily proven though nobody seems to want to take that rather obvious step, it is in her case merely restoring her to equality with her competitors. This is why the issue gets so untidy. There are athletes, many more than you might imagine, who are disadvantaged by the banning of substances which are a necessary part of their health regime. I'm not for one second suggesting a carte blanche acceptance of drugs in sport but I do fear that the current black and white policies simply fail to address the complexity of the issue.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Sounds like some sort of radioactive glow in the dark sh*t to me... 
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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Joe Woodbury wrote: there's no evidence
Unfortunately that's true of many banned substances. The performance enhancement is inferred from the known physiological effects rather than proven. As trials with placebos have shown that performance can be significantly improved with 'drugs' that have no physiological effect too it's clear that the whole issue is considerably more complex than regulators can allow for.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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OriginalGriff wrote: Wimbledon will be quieter this year: Madam Grunty banned for two years for failed drugs test[^]
Tantor is decidedly unhappy and I'd be happier if the Mike Hunt was dead.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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If a newspaper writes about a periodical function, is that a sine of the Times?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Only if it's written by just one reporter, if several people work together, then it's a cosine.
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There you go - off on another tangent. If you're angling for some up-votes then you're acutely mistaken.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Ignore him - he's just trying to trig us.
/ravi
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Just give him some pi and he'll stop.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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No, give him some pi and he'll take it as a sine to go round and round forever.
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Yes, he's likely to take this to the nth degree.
/ravi
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