There have been two names slashed across sports headlines these past few days – Maria Sharapova and meldonium.

One you’re probably familiar with, Sharapova having been the highest-earning female athlete for the best part of a decade. Maybe not anymore, but as the whole saga plays out many of us have been left wondering what exactly this meldonium is and why it would be on the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) list of banned substances.

Here’s the BBC with their description:

Meldonium – also known as mildronate – is a drug designed to treat ischemia, a condition where there is a reduction in blood supply to body tissue. It is also said to have benefits for diabetes sufferers…

The ability to increase oxygen movement to muscles has seen meldonium used as a supplement for athletes, as it could have a positive effect on stamina and endurance.

Dr Bassindale said: “It’s advertised as giving a mental focus, removing external stress so you feel sharper. There is a slight central nervous system effect, like with stimulants such as caffeine, which gives you a sharper edge.

“But it will aid recovery quicker from a hard effort – whether that’s playing multiple games of tennis or a cyclist coming back the next day for another stage. There is also an endurance effect.”

Turns out this scandal has been good for those selling meldonium, sales spiking in the past 36 hours. So just how widespread is its use?

Last year, as part of Wada’s monitoring of meldonium, a Cologne testing centre found that 182 of 8,320 random urine samples gave positive results for the drug – a rate of 2.2%.

“That’s huge,” says Dr Bassindale. “The overall positive tests for all other doping was about 2% from 280,000 tests.”

How’s that, it accounts for as many failed tests as all other substances combined. So exactly why has it now been banned?

After Wada monitored use of meldonium, it decided the drug would be included on the banned list from 1 January.

Dr Bassindale said: “When deciding whether to ban a drug, Wada looks at three things. Will it enhance performance? Is it detrimental to the health of an athlete? Is it against the ‘spirit of sport’?

“To be banned, a drug must ‘fail’ two of these three tests. Presumably, in this case, they have decided the drug is against the ‘spirit of sport’.”

I guess the onus here falls on Sharapova and her team, Wada’s banning decision a fact that should have been known to them long before the Australian Open rolled around.

Whether tennis wants to make an example of her and hand out a lengthy ban remains to be seen, but with the current prevalence of Russian athletes found doping you’d be forgiven for thinking that the sport is well justified to come down very harshly on the Sharapova empire.

[source:bbc]