Another big-name athlete caught with her hand in the cookie jar...

[viktor_haag]

After Martina Hingis has, apparently, tested positive for cocaine as part of the urine tests accompanying Wimbledon, she rails, "I am innocent!" and then swifly announces her retirement. In other words, we now apparently have an I'm Taking My Ball And Going Home defense.

Her privately hired lawyer is talking about "inconsistencies in the testing process", but it also appears that both her A and B samples have produced positive results. Oh dear.

Comments

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

Well, every other kind of celebrity gets to use drugs. Athletes are being unfairly singled out!

[jkahane.livejournal.com]

Damn, this is very sad to hear, Viktor, as I always rather thought that she was one hottie of a tennis star, and pretty damn skilled at it as well. I guess even professional athletes in sports where high levels of physical endurance and concentration are required are not immune to substance and drug abuse.

Between that and the Tarzan yell copyright story (see my blog today), this is just disillusioning as a day goes. Is there such a thing as Pumpkin Fools? I guess not. :(

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I must admit I was never a fan of Hingis. I was much more a fan of Aranxa and Steffi (ooo, Steffi), but never Hingis; and yes, even professional athletes (in fact, I think one could argue, especially professional atheletes) can be dopes who delude themselves into thinking the normal rules of sense and sensibility do not apply to them.

What I hope is that Hingis gets help. She's going to need it one way or the other.

[jkahane.livejournal.com]

I was a fan of Steffi Graff as well, as I loved the fluidity of her motion on the tennis court.

I suppose you're right about professional athletes, since they are human, too, and just as capable of deluding themselves as well. Heck, look at all the other types of athletes who are into steroids and the like as well as hard drugs. I suspect we hear a lot less about what goes on in tennis circles than other sports.

Like you, I hope Hingis gets the help she needs.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Steroids and other performance enhancing drugs I can understand (not necessarily approve of, but understand). However, illegal, recreational drugs which are clearly on the banned substances list? Well, let's just say that a professional athlete of Hingis' stature must either be (a) an idiot, or (b) in a severe amount of personal turmoil to engage in silliness like that. If what she was hypothetically after as performance enhancement, surely there are more dependable (and safer, and legal) ways to achieve that goal than cocaine, whether they be against the rules or no. If what she was after was to get high, well, let's just say that's a classic Career Limiting Manoeuvre, and behold, her career has been limited...

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, although historical odds are not in favour, it's entirely possible that she's on the level when she declaims her innocence and either the testing process has botched or she's been duped somehow. But with her retirement, and her refusal to fight what she calls "the allegations", how will we really know? It's an interesting tactic and seemingly cannily taken: she makes her eloquent statement and disappears into the night.

On her favourable side, so far, she submits a hair sample for independent testing; however, I'm not sure how well that's going to work in her favour, even if her hair sample turns up clean (I don't know, for example, the accuracy attainable in a hair-sample test, nor how long the drug might present itself in a hair sample as opposed to urine).

On the negative side, if the test botched (and indeed, both A and B samples have botched) then that speaks volumes about the testing process itself, and I would think that the women's tour itself might want to look very seriously into this particular test.

I suppose it's also remotely possible she could have been nobbled, but who really stands to gain by nobbling Hingis? It would probably be easier to nobble someone with an illegal but comparatively easy drug to get like Cocaine (I'm guessing it would be easier for a nobbler to get ahold of this and introduce it in a victim than, say, human growth hormone, or some esoteric steroid, as cocaine can be ingested through the mouth whereas I expect that HGH or steroids would have to be injected to present themselves in the victim's system).

Tennis had better deal with this, and the lurking match fixing rumblings, and damn quick, or their increasingly unpopular sport is going to take a nose dive toward the basement just as professional cycling has done.