Letter to Maria

Sharapova tells how she was actually “warned” about the prohibition of Meldonia

Five days have passed since the moment when the most famous Russian athlete Maria Sharapova said that she had failed a doping test. As it turned out, she took the drug for 10 years, which they decided to ban from the beginning of 2016. The press appeared that the tennis player was warned five times about the ban on the drug, and she could not notice these warnings. Maria Sharapova wrote a letter to her fans, in which she told how these “warnings” really looked. "Medusa" publishes a complete translation of her post on Facebook.

To my fans.

I would like to discuss the latest news with you, and also tell you that there are things that the press illuminated incorrectly. And I would like to answer it.

You sincerely supported me, and I am very grateful for it. But I noticed that individual media in their reports exaggerate and distort the facts.

They say that I was warned five times about the ban on the drug that I took. This is not true. This was not.

Yes, I am to blame for not knowing about the ban. I have already said that on December 22, 2015 a letter came with the topic “The main changes in the anti -doping program of tennis for 2016”. I should have studied it more carefully.

But other "warnings"? They were hidden in newsletters, in the bowels of sites and handout.

On December 18, I received a letter with the topic “News for the player”. It contained a mountain of travel reports, nearest tournaments, ratings, statistics; Ads, birthday greetings and yes, information about doping. To find information about the ban on a particular drug in that letter, the player should: open a letter, look at a dozen incomprehensible links, find a link to the player’s office, enter a login and password, view the entire site with three dozen links to different topics, find a link to “Changes in the anti -doping program of tennis -2016”, click on it and find a page with another three dozen references to Anti -doping materials. After that, it was necessary to click on the correct material, open it, squeeze it to the second page and find there the drug that I took, but under a different name.

In other words, in order to get a “warning”, it was necessary to open a letter with a topic that was not related to doping, go to the site, enter a login and password, to abide, click, click, click, click, squeeze and only then read. Probably, individual publications can call this a warning. But I think that most people will say that such a warning would be too difficult to find.

There were also booklets that were distributed at different tournaments in early 2016, when the ban began to operate. There are thousands of words in this document, most of them are purely technical, also printed in small print. Was it worth it to study it? Yes. But if you look at this paper, you will understand what I mean.

I repeat, this does not excuse me, but it is wrong to say that I was warned five times.

I also saw the headline: " The course of the drug that was taken by Maria Sharapova is 4-6 weeks ." This phrase was repeated from the report to the report, but it does not convey the whole truth. In the same reports, the manufacturer of the drug says that “the course can be repeated twice or three times a year. Only doctors can evaluate the patient's condition and decide whether he should take meldonium longer. ”

This is exactly what I did. I did not accept it every day. I followed the doctor’s recommendations and took him in small doses.

I am proud of how I did. I am honest and open. I did not invent an injury to hide a positive test.

I am waiting for a trial in the tennis federation when they get my detailed medical history.

I hope I can still play. But regardless of the decision of sports officials, I want you, my fans, to know the truth.