The Doping Argies were the front runners in this category—by a mile—even before they apparently blew out all the other contenders when, earlier today, Mariano “Just Say Yes” Puerta got chucked out of tennis for eight years as a repeat drug-policy offender.
This story ordinarily would give TennisWorld a ton of new material to rant or riff on (sorry, all you hand-wringing Puerta/doping Argie sympathizers—these guys are out of control!), but an even sadder story broke later in the day to knock the swarthy Puerta from his dubious perch at the top of the doper seedings. And that was the sad saga of Sesil Karatantcheva, who has also been reported as a drug cheat.
Although the ITF has not yet confirmed that Karatantcheva tested positive for nandrolone, L’Equipe has had a pretty solid track record when it comes to doping scoops. In fact, the regularity with which L’Equipe breaks doping stories makes me think that the newspaper is being used by the sports establishment as a conduit to the public—despite protestation to the contrary from the officials involved.
To me, the most depressing element in this story is that, according to L’Equipe, Karatantcheva told the ITF panel convened to hear her case that she was pregnant at the time of the test and subsequently suffered a miscarriage (she later told a Bulgarian news agency that she wasn’t informed of the test result, and denied having appeared before a panel—the latter surely is a fact that the ITF is duty-bound to admit or deny, and soon).
Sesil is 16. Perhaps she’s a scared 16. But for her to either lie about being pregnant (in some strikingly amoral variation on the standard “the dog ate my homework” doper’s defense), or get pregnant at that age, are equally unappealing excuses.
Either way, it plants serious doubts about a kid who I, probably in a minority, found refreshing when she burst on the scene and created a sensation at Indian Wells in 2004 (just type “Sesil” in the search box, and check out my first post on her, "The Sweet Science".
But if this were simply a unique story about a player lost in the maelstrom of the competitive game, it would never warrant the “Most Troubling” label. I’m afraid that the Doping Argies were just the tip of the iceberg, and that the report on Karatantcheva puts into vivid perspective exactly how pervasive the problem is in the international, individual, highly competitive, impossible-to-police sport of tennis.
Comment: I hate everything about doping. I hate the fact that people are immoral enough to dope. I hate the fact that dopers are responsible for dehumanizing sport by virtue of forcing bureaucrats to adopt draconian, invasive procedures to police doping. I hate the rumor-mongering and speculation that doping encourages, and I hate the way that doping, or even innuendo or accusations of doping, can taint an athlete’s accomplishments—or make us question whether those accomplishments are legitimate.
Nevertheless, doping seems to be the issue of our time, and there may be something appropriate about that. For the sad truth is that doping, the way it occurs and the way the dope busts play out, create the perfect quandary for this era of ambiguity. We live in a time when the difference between truth and falsehood is constantly assaulted, when some fine minds argue that nothing can be proven, that all we have is different narratives.
The most amazing—and telling—thing about doping is that not a single abuser has stepped forward and said, “Yeah, I cheated. I thought I could get away with it, but I didn’t.”
Prediction: Now that the drug-testing has been taken over from the ATP and WTA by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), I expect a flurry of positive tests and suspensions—unless the dopers see that the party is over, or their bent doctors can stay one step ahead of the posse.