CAS Reduces Sharapova Doping Ban

(ATR) Maria Sharapova’s two-year doping ban has been cut to 15 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Sharapova, who tested positive for meldonium on Jan. 26, 2016 during the Australian Open, will now be eligible to return on April 26, 2017.

In its ruling, CAS found that Sharapova committed an anti-doping rule violation and that while it was with "no significant fault", she did bear some degree of fault "for her failure to make sure that the substance contained in a product that she had been taking over a long period remained in compliance with the anti-doping rules."

Sharapova had publicly announced in March that she had inadvertently committed an anti-doping rule violation by continuing to take meldonium, which she said had been prescribed to her for many years by her doctor. She admitted then that neither she nor her team had noticed that meldonium had been added to the list of prohibited substances effective Jan. 1, 2016.

The International Tennis Federation banned Sharapova for two years on June 6. Three days later, she filed an appeal with CAS arguing that she did not take meldonium to enhance her performance and that her period of ineligibility should be reduced on the basis of "No Significant Fault".

The ITF, in a statement, said that while CAS did rule that Sharapova’s plea of No Significant Fault or Negligence should be upheld, it also found "that Ms. Sharapova was at fault for (a) failing to give her agent adequate instructions as to how to carry out the important task of checking the Prohibited List, and (b) failing to supervise and control the actions of her agent in carrying out that task (specifically the lack of any procedure for reporting or follow-up verification to make sure that her agent had actually discharged his duty. The CAS panel also noted Ms. Sharapova’s failure to disclose her use of meldonium on her doping control forms."

CAS, however, also found that WADA and ITF failed to adequately communicate the withdrawal of approval for meldonium.

WADA issued a statement, saying it abides by the CAS ruling and "recognizes that CAS fully scrutinized all available information and evidence in Ms. Sharapova’s appeal and imposed what it deemed to be an appropriate sanction under the World Anti-Doping Code".

Sharapova had asked CAS for her ban to be reduced to time already served. The decision to reduce it by nine months means she still has about seven more months on the sidelines. She will still be banned during the Australian Open in January but will be eligible for the French Open in May.

The shortened ban means that instead of missing all four of the tennis majors in 2017, Sharapova will now be eligible to play in three of them.

Written by Gerard Farek

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