Sharapova's doping ban cut from 2 years to 15 months

cracaphat: A disgrace.

How so? I can't agree. This is a positive development in this case. Some punishment is certainly due - a rule was broken. But two years for unintentionally breaking a rule, which happened due to taking heart medication? Certainly this wasn't done maliciously, and robbing a player of a whole 2 prime years of her career - not to mention preventing her from joining in the Olympics - was overkill. Glad to see some logic being applied to the situation.

No disgrace. WADA's handling of the whole meldonium ban without knowing how long it stays in the system was disgraceful. Sharapova admitted she took the drug in January after the ban took effect 3 weeks earlier. She should be penalized but time served is more than just. She has missed out on millions of dollars but lucky for her she doesn't need the money. WADA really dropped the ball.

Rewrite:

“The panel has determined, given the totality of her beauty, that even a sanction of 15 months is not really appropriate here given her degree of hotness,” the three-man arbitration body ruled.

@cracaphat

You need to check your research a bit, friend.

this performance enhancing drug

From the Wikipedia entry on meldonium: "there are debates over its use as an athletic performance enhancer...Don Catlin, a long-time anti-doping expert and the scientific director of the Banned Substances Control Group (BSCG) said “There’s really no evidence that there’s any performance enhancement from meldonium - Zero percent.”"

If you need to take something that long.... Well your heart is fine.

Sorry, but that's inaccurate. Some medicines can cure certain conditions, that's true. However, other medicines are meant to help the person get by, but can't fix the overall problem. Ask someone who's been taking anti-depressants for a few years whether they can stop taking them now because the meds have cured the depression for the rest of that person's life. It doesn't work that way - if the person's condition remains stable, they'll need those meds on a continuing basis.

Muhammed Ali got robbed 4 years of his prime for B.S. but please refer to my first post for the reasons.

First of all, Ali got banned for 3 years, not 4. Secondly, Ali knowingly broke a rule (and law) by refusing to be inducted into the military. You may think that rule and law were ridiculous (and I'd have to agree with you), but the point is that Ali knew the rules, and purposely ignored them. To quote the article above: "While Sharapova did commit a doping violation, “under no circumstances ... can the player be considered to be an ‘intentional doper,’” the panel said." Leniency was shows because the rule wasn't intentionally broken...which is a much more reasonable reason than having a good complexion, as you claimed.

I'd bet my left n*t that none of you would support Serena Williams in the same way if it were her situation. And if anyone up on here said yes,they'd be lying.

...???