Keith Strudler: Failing An Exam

We’ve all failed tests. It's never pleasant, but for the most part, it's a learning process. That's certainly what I told myself when my college astronomy midterm had answers akin to "the sun is hot." But that was a relatively low stakes affair, minus the impact it had on my GPA and ability to appear on the television show Cosmos. There are some failed exams that sting a little more, like say failing your driver’s exam. But you can always take that again. Then there are the tests that really matter, making failure a bit more damaging. Like say failing your qualifying exams in graduate school or failing the bar. So while failure is a learning experience, there are times when we’d all rather learn a little less.

Buy those accounts, tennis star Maria Sharapova is about to learn a whole lot she never wanted to know. Like what it's like to be suspended from the sport that's made her a household name both on and off the court. That's because it was just reported that Sharapova failed a drug test at the Australian Open for taking the recently banned substance meldonium, which apparently can help you to endure challenging physical situations.

According to Sharapova, she’s been taking this recently banned drug for around 10 years, using it to control a variety of conditions, from heart related to pre-diabetes. The drug is widely unknown in the western world, its use far more prevalent in Russia and Eastern Europe. That speaks to its genesis as a drug used to help the Soviet Army in their invasion Afghanistan in 1980. Sharapova is one of a handful of athletes who have already tested positive for meldonium, all hailing from Russia and nearby environs. It's unclear how widespread the drug is or how much it was used before it was banned, but at the very least it seems far more an isolated than widespread problem, assuming it is to be considered even that. Exports seem to believe its impact is relatively minor, certainly not that of the more widely abused EPO or various steroids and stimulants. As an aggregate, this seems more failure to comply then epidemic.

It's not clear just how long Sharapova will be kept on the sidelines. At 29 and with inconsistent and injury plagued performance in the past several years, a lengthy sabbatical could segue into an early retirement. As odd as it may seem, 30s are nearly the senior’s circuit in the women's tennis world, making Serena Williams’s dominant play in recent years even more an anomaly. There will be hearings and appeals yet to come, but it is safe to say that Maria Sharapova’s career potential hangs in the balance. All over a drug that may or may not have truly helped her performance.

There's a lot to say about this case, both as a testament to the individual and the larger issue of PED's and testing. First, this case reminds us the extent to which athletes will continue to press the boundaries of human performance. Sharapova’s mistake was that she kept taking meldonium after it was banned. That’s when she got in trouble. But let’s not forget she spent some 10 years taking meds she largely didn’t need simply because it might have made her just a little better at tennis. And if the World Anti-Doping Agency didn’t decide to ban it, she’d still be taking it, regardless the health risks. That’s the nature of elite athletics, for worse or worse.

Second, this failed drug test, and the fact that it took some thirty plus years to even test for meldonium, is another exemplar of how essentially impossible it is to even define, much less enforce clean sport. For the last 10 years, Maria Sharapova was clean. Then, with a simply policy change, not a behavioral one, she’s not. How many other athletes, taking other, yet-to-be-banned substances, are in the same boat? How many so-called “clean” athletes are only clean by contract, not ethos? Which means clean sport isn’t an ideology, but rather a potentially arbitrary determination. Think about that the next time you commend some famous athlete for doing it “the right way.” Because as we all know, there’s a difference between rules and ethics. Too often, in the land of performance enhancing drugs, we equate the two.

What does that mean for Maria Sharapova and the rest of her tennis life? Hard to say, even as she tries to convince the public she’s not a bad person even though she failed a drug test. Whether she’ll succeed at that is still yet to be seen.

 
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