The Meldonium Mess

You quoted a policy under which an unexcused absence could result in a suspension and appeared to consider that to be problematic because tests could be missed by some particular situations you described. I stated the obvious or something which should have been obvious; namely that whether or not that policy was problematic depended on whether excuses were difficult to come by.It turns out that actually have no idea about whether athletes can simply tell why their plans changed for the day and thus escape punishment. It would appear that there is no way to evaluate whether the policy is either problematic or burdensome. You cannot even tell me how that missed testing problem is handled now. Maybe the tester, after missing the athlete, spends time trying to follow up until he gets an acceptable answer from the athlete and his coach. I can't even get you to show me an unfair burden on the athlete for most of the problems I've tried to dig into. Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

Whoa, brother. I have no grounds for reaching any conclusion, and I have not done so. I've just asked some pointed, but reasonable questions of you regarding how you reached your own conclusions. Are you suggesting that I should simply take your word for things, when you haven't researched them either? Why should I do that? Again, I've just asked you some questions. I have not made any claims, or gone off on any flights of fancy. I agree with PaulK's assessment of the evidence. You have not shown how easy or difficult it is to find acceptable excuses. All we know is that 21 such attempts were not successful. If it turns out that you are right about the difficulty of offering excuses then you've addressed my question. At this point, I don't think I'm in any position to be right or wrong to ask for evidence. At the time I asked the question, I'd have been happy to hear even anecdotes of students saying, I offered excuse X and got burned. But so far, we just have a relatively small number, less than 0.5 athletes per state, who have gotten caught up in the failure to provide an accepted excuse over some period of time. Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

Ray Rice received a two game suspension after knocking his wife unconscious. I understand the sentiment that Sharapova's suspension is too long. But the NFL's system of punishment is a joke.

Sharapova is not being barred for bad behavior. She is ineligible based on her current world ranking and requires a special invitation, or wildcard granting permission to play in the French Open. Sharapova simply has not had enough time since the end of her suspension to raise her ranking. The French open declined to make the invitation despite a large financial incentive to offer the invitation.Of course, there is some politics involved.British tennis divided over Maria Sharapova wildcard | Daily Mail Online

quote:

---

The most questionable aspect of the Sharapova decision was the simultaneous award of a wildcard to men's player Constant Lestienne, who is coming back from a ban for betting on matches.

---

I would expect that tournaments have nearly complete discretion in deciding to whom they want to extend wild-cards. But we can still question whether the decision was made fairly.I've read that Martina Navratilova is among the former pros who is supportive of giving Sharapova wildcards, but I've also heard that a number of current players and former players were incensed when she received a wildcard to play in a previous tournament. Here is Pam Shriver's take (from the same article cited above):

quote:

---

'It has to be a popular decision in the women's locker room,' she told ESPN in reference to the French non-invitation. 'So many players who are admired and looked up to have spoken out against Sharapova. The feeling has to be that we are not going to grant special privileges to anyone, no matter how successful they have been.

​

She (Sharapova) needs to take a step back and reconcile that her return to major tennis is going to have to wait and not be bitter about it.'

---

It appears that Sharapova will need a wildcard to enter the Australian Open and Wimbledon as well. Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.