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Initial thoughts on Sharapova drug test failure

So Sharapova fails a test for a drug she was using for 10 years.  It was legal (or 'not-yet-illegal') until Jan 1, 2016.

She claims it was for medicinal reasons, irregular heartbeat, family history of diabetes...
but it turns out she was not the only athlete using this drug.

A Russian icedancer, two Russian biathletes, a Russian cyclist

It all looks rather systematic.  Yes it was 'legal'.  But it appears it was definitely intended to be performance enhancing.

Here's a quote from an article on Meldonium

"Some pharmaceutical companies have recently marketed it explicitly as a performance-enhancing drug."
http://roidvisor.com/performance-enhanc … gly-legal/

Maria's doing her best to look innocent, while freely acknowledging she was using a legal substance, but her intent in using it seems to have been - as the growing bulk of circumstantial evidence points to - performance enhancement.

It all makes me wonder...
What else is going in the tennis world re: performance enhancement?
How deep is this?
What other 'legal' substances are being used?  How much performance-enhancing activity is regularly engaged in by the top tennis players? which ones? and what activities?

I'd bet this is far bigger than we can see now...

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