In a column in the newspaper El Mundo, former Top 10 player Emilio Sanchez-Vicario of Spain responds to former Roland Garros champion Yannick Noah’s allegations that Spanish athletes are doping.
"I felt a profound disappointment," wrote Sanchez, who is the President of the Athletes’ Association of Spain. "You have hurt the Spaniards, the athletes and me; I don’t think it’s fair to discredit the triumphs of Spanish athletes by treating them all as cheaters. You, who always defended sportsmanship! Is this a sportsman’s behavior? I don’t think we deserved it.
“I am still stunned, you allege that being physically strong or having an exceptional body is because of taking magic potions? Then, those who competed with you, what should we think? We had before us a much stronger and athletic player, faster, more explosive, and we thought: ‘He is the great Yannick, pure talent, naturally strong, how lucky he is.’ We never thought that you had the potion of Asterix [the comic-book character Asterix, who ingested infusions of a ‘magic potion’ to give him supernatural strength]."
Sanchez also wrote that what has keyed Spain’s rise is a focus on four factors: the head, conditioning, heart and b---s. "If you channel these four factors, it appears this energy that makes the difference," he said.
Sanchez says that the success of Spain in sports has been incremental and mentions that in tennis, he was gradually followed by Roland Garros champions Sergi Bruguera, Carlos Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Albert Costa and "the generation of [Rafael] Nadal and all the other great players we have in the Top 100, which have been inspired by previous generations and have surpassed them. The same has happened with other sports, like soccer or basketball. You, who understand soccer, can see that our players win because of their game, not because of physical power. The same happens with our basketball players, who do not have the athletic body of your son [Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah], but they ended up beating him in the final. The great champions do not win because of magic potions, they win because they are special and are able to create this unique energy, just as you did."
In related news, the French newspaper Le Figaro reports that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who apologized to Nadal for Noah’s comments, said of Noah: "If he had proof it would be great. As long as he has none. It will be useless. He speaks his mind, but if everything he thought was true, he'd dominate the world."
In a statement Tuesday, the French Tennis Federation said that it "wishes to express its disagreement with regards to the comments made by Noah" and that "accusations without proof and provocative comments are inappropriate."