Five-times grand slam tennis champion Maria Sharapova hit out at some media accounts of her doping case that she termed "wrong" in an open letter to her fans on Facebook on Friday. Sharapova, who tested positive for the banned drug meldonium at the Australian Open in January, is facing a suspension of up to four years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and has already lost numerous sponsorships in the aftermath. The former world number one thanked her fans for their "tremendous outpouring of support" before launching into a critique of what she believed were some inaccurate reports. "A report said that I had been warned five times about the upcoming ban on the medicine I was taking. That is not true and it never happened," Sharapova wrote. The 28-year-old Russian said she was making no excuses for not knowing about the ban that went into effect on Jan. 1, but said that after the first announcement, other notices were "buried in newsletters, websites, or handouts." "Again, no excuses, but it's wrong to say I was warned five times," said Sharapova, who has said she took the drug for 10 years due to a family history of heart issues and diabetes.
Yulia Stepanova, an international runner who was herself suspended for doping offences, and her husband Vitaly, a former Russian anti-doping agency official, secretly recorded Russian coaches and athletes over almost two years describing how they used performance-enhancing drugs.
'The situation with Sharapova could be resolved after April 21 when we meet with the head of the international federation. After that all should be become clear. It is too early to talk about Sharapova competing at the Olympic Games'
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has suspended Deputy Sports Minister Yury Nagornykh, who was named in a report on the doping of Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the government said on Monday.
The reason: Vitaly Mutko has delivered victories on the sports field for the past decade and a half to match Putin's ambition of restoring national pride, and the Russian leader stands by the people who give him loyal service.
Shuttler P V Sindhu scripted a new chapter in Indian Olympic history with unprecedented feat but the embattled Narsingh Yadav's dreams lay in tatters after being slapped with a four-year doping ban on a bitter-sweet day for the country at the Rio Games.
The International Judo Federation said on Monday that Kosovo's judo gold medallist Majlinda Kelmendi had refused to take an unscheduled drug test in France ahead of the Rio Games but that the procedure looked "questionable" and any sanction given would not be applied outside France.
Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt said on Saturday that controversy over Jamaica's anti-doping programme is scaring off potential sponsors and costing him money.
"The athlete has challenged the imposition of the provisional suspension and the case has been referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport - Anti-Doping Division," the ITA said.
The final version of a report which has already revealed a system of state-sponsored doping in Russia is still several months away, its author Richard McLaren said on Friday.
Out-of-favour India hockey goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza has tested positive for a banned substance in a random test conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) during the inaugural World Series Hockey which concluded early this month.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
The 29-year-old former French Open finalist failed the out-of-competition test in February after a urine sample was found to contain letrozole - a substance used in the treatment of breast cancer which is also on the banned drug list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
China's world and Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang served a three-month ban earlier this year after testing positive for a banned stimulant, the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) said on Monday.
'Following AIU charges based on LIMS data, Russian athlete Natalia Antyukh has been banned for the use of a Prohibited Substance/Method. DQ results from 15 July 2012 until 29 June 2013.'
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, on Monday, said bringing the BCCI under the ambit of National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) is one of his biggest achievements since assuming his new office three months ago.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Russian track and field athletes look certain to miss out on this year's world championships after an IAAF task force recommended on Monday that the country's ban should run until November.
The Indian Olympic Association secretary general Rajeev Mehta on Monday requested the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to expedite the process for the vaccination of the country's Tokyo Olympic-bound athletes and officials against COVID-19.
Testers were also routinely obstructed from gaining access to athletes who used military cities as the location for their whereabouts knowing doping control officers would need special permission to gain access. The WADA update also revealed several examples of widespread efforts to avoid testing, including one detailed instance where an athlete tried to use a container inserted inside her body that presumably contained clean urine.
Some of the main points of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission's (IC) report into allegations of widespread doping in Russian athletics. The commission was set up after Germany's ARD television said in a documentary programme aired on December 3 last year that it had found evidence of systematic doping and cover-ups.
'if my body is giving me company why should I stop the sport? Some foreign athletes run till 35 or 37. So I wanted to set an example for other athletes that age does not matter,' says MR Poovamma, Arjuna Awardee and the senior-most member of the Paris Olympics-bound Indian women's 4x400m relay team.
Former tennis world number one Maria Sharapova said on Monday that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open due to a substance she has been taking the last 10 years for health issues.
Breakdancing, considered one of the pillars of hip-hop culture, will also make its Asian Games bow in 2022, two years before it features in the Olympics for the first time in Paris.
Lance Armstrong's promise to come clean about doping is "a little late", the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Thursday, accusing the disgraced cyclist of trying to use events to "gain advantage".
Cypriot weightlifter Antonis Martasidis and an unnamed Greek competitor have tested positive for banned substances and have been expelled from the Rio Olympics, their teams said on Friday.
In what may come as an embarrassing revelation for India's anti-doping machinery, 500 sportspersons, mostly weightlifters and track-and-field athletes, have failed drug tests conducted by NADA in the last four and a half years.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
Russia could be banned from participating in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics if proposed changes to the World Anti-Doping Agency Code announced on Thursday are fast-tracked.
'I don't think anyone at FINA is going to stand up for the athletes so the athletes have to stand up for themselves'
Caeleb Dressel lit up the pool by winning his fourth, fifth and sixth gold medals on Saturday but even his electric performance failed to brighten the mood on a dark day at the world swimming championships in Gwangju.
Russian Evgeniia Kolodko has been stripped of her shot put silver medal from the London 2012 Olympics after testing positive for banned substances in a re-test, the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday.
Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Narsingh Pancham Yadav was elected chairman of the Wrestling Federation of India's Athletes' Commission in Varanasi on Wednesday, completing a process that was mandated by the sport's world governing body.
Sanjita Chanu will be conferred with the Arjuna award as per a 2018 Delhi High Court order, which directed the selection committee to consider her and keep the decision in a sealed cover to be disclosed only if she was absolved of the doping charges.
Russia still has a shot to compete in the athletics competition at the 2016 Olympics if they can prove they are drug free, the head of a probe into the country's doping scandal said on Tuesday.
'We have exhausted all options for reform through dialogue, and the governing bodies have left us no choice but to seek accountability through the courts.'
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday
World indoor 1500 metres champion Abeba Aregawi has been suspended from Swedish athletics after she tested positive for a banned substance, the national federation said on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) records leaked by hackers raised a lot of questions with healthy athletes seemingly taking banned substances, TASS news agency reported.
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