The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency acknowledged that it's too late to punish Andre Agassi for his failed drug test from 1997, darned statute of limitations. But WADA said it still wants some punishment, anyway. Maybe for Agassi's lies to doping officials, which he admits in his book? Maybe for perjury?Doubtful. But I knew tennis would get its pound of flesh, anyway, as Agassi has embarrassed the sport's governing bodies. What I didn't know was how fast they would get that flesh.
Or that they would take it from Yanina Wickmayer.
She was banned Thursday for a year for a doping offense. It wasn't for failing a test, or apparently even for missing one, though details still aren't out. It was because she failed to report three times to doping officials over the past 18 months where she would be.
So Agassi did crystal meth. Tennis swept it under the rug.
And Yanina Wickmayer took the fall.
How cold.
Players have to tell officials months in advance about their whereabouts for an hour each day, though they can adjust if their schedules change. Rafael Nadal calls it harassment. Serena Williams and others have complained.
Wickmayer has her excuses, but she blew it and she needed to be punished. How about a two-week suspension, a fine and a probationary period where she's tested twice a week?
A one-year ban? That's massive overkill.
Worse, it's pathetic and transparent.
Tennis is trying to send a message: See world? We are tough on drugs, no matter what Agassi says.
Look, if it's a PR campaign the sport wants, then it just happened to pick the wrong person to beat up, though the handiest, because her file was on the desk.
Wickmayer is the 20-year old Belgian who emerged at the U.S. Open in September, reaching the semifinals. Her mother died when Yanina was 9. Days later, Yanina told her father she wanted to move to the U.S. So he dropped everything -- house, business, cars and friends -- in his toughest grief and left within a week for his daughter's happiness. She had just taken up tennis to get away from the pain.
At the Open this year, I asked her about it, and she sat in front of her father and said this: "He listened to a girl that was 9 years old, and left his life, left his dreams. . .I have no words for what he's done. There is no way of thanking him in any way for what he did.
"But I hope with my semis here this week, I can show him that I really thank him for everything he's done. It's been great spending my whole life with him.''
Imagine hearing that from your teenage daughter.
On Thursday, Wickmayer withdrew mid-tournament from an event in Bali and left the country, as her suspension started immediately.
She denied wrongdoing and said she'll appeal.
Why do I think this is a stunt? Take a look at the calendar. She said a month ago, when her problems first came up, that she had had trouble with her password getting onto the WADA website to update her whereabouts.
On Oct. 22, a prosecutor at the Belgian anti-doping tribunal suggested she get a stern warning. That's where this was headed. And it's quite a difference from the one-year suspension from the tour that she got.
So what happened in those 14 days between warning and banning?
In his autobiography, Agassi admitted he had used crystal meth as a player in 1997, and had failed a test for it. He wrote that he talked his way out of trouble by saying he had mistakenly taken a sip of a friend's spiked drink.
So the ATP either stupidly bought it or swept the failed test under the rug because Agassi was a big name. I'll go with the second one. And suddenly the anti-doping people have fangs for Wickmayer.
To clarify, in 1997, the ATP ran its own drug-testing program. Now, tennis drug-testing has been handed over to WADA, known for its toughness. But earlier this year, player Richard Gasquet won an appeal over his suspension for failing a cocaine test. How? He said he had gotten the drug in his system by kissing a woman in a bar.
It's true we're talking about different organizations here. Wickmayer, along with fellow Belgian player Xavier Malisse, was suspended by a Belgian anti-doping tribunal. Wickmayer, ranked No. 18, is the fall person because tennis needed a top player for the hit. Malisse is barely in the top 100.
But tennis is an incestuous operation and all these different governing bodies can oddly work as one sometimes.
Things seem to be out of control in tennis. The ITF, all this time later, is still investigating Williams for her U.S. Open tirade, and theoretically will punish her within the next two weeks. Let's see how her punishment for threatening a line judge stacks up to Wickmayer's.
WADA has told the ATP to investigate Agassi's claims, which is like asking a fox to investigate the sudden disappearances in the chicken coop.
Meanwhile, CBS has released clips of Agassi's appearance on "60 Minutes" this Sunday, and he talks about the players former and current, particularly Martina Navratilova, who have been ripping him.
"I had a problem, and there might be many other athletes out there that test positive for recreational drugs that have a problem,'' Agassi said. ``So I would ask for some compassion ...
"I had way more to lose by telling this story in its full transparency than I had to gain. The part that I worry and think more about is who this may help.''
He risked reputation, but was paid $5 million for the book, for that risk. That was his price for supposed honesty. As for worrying about helping others with his message, well Andre, I'm sure that will make Wickmayer feel much better.
Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-06-2009 @ 1:47PM
Russ Totten said...
Sorry, but 3 strikes must warrant consequences. Once is something to look at. Twice is a red flag. Three times, and she's thumbing her nose at the rules and wants to see if she can get away with it. She needs to learn about consequences.
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11-06-2009 @ 6:58PM
Jessie said...
@ Russ: Yanina didn't do this deliberately. According to the international rules she didn't have to fill in the whereabouts, because she wasn't in the top-50 at the start of the year. While she was playing in Australia a decry was accepted in Flanders (not saying Belgium, because it's not true in Wallonia), saying that all tennisplayers should fill in their whereabouts. They send a letter to Yanina's home addresse (while they knew she was in Australia) which had to be signed for. Of course no-one was there to accept it, so letter returned to sender.
Only a couple of months later she learned she actually had to fill in those things, but then her login didn't work. This has been acknowlegded by both ITF and WADA. Yanina had contact with them through e-mail and over the phone. Even the contactperson of the WADA wasn't able to access Yanina's personal information, with the consequence that she again wasn't able to comply to this rule. Only after she got a message from the WADA to state that they had reset the system, she was able to log in. Unfortunately so many months had passed already that she had actually failed 3 times already to present the correct information. Since the moment she could log in she has always filed them. She even had them filled in until March 2010!!
During those months she has had controls both during and outside competition from the ITF, WTA and Flemish anti-doping tribunale and has NEVER been tested positive.
11-06-2009 @ 8:36PM
Bob said...
Couch, how long are you going to ride this wave? Whatever your obsession with Agassi, and his transgression that you seem to think he did specifically to spite or hurt you, give it up already. How many times over the next year or so must we read an article where you blame Andre for all your problems? What's wrong, did you finally have to tear down his poster from your bedroom wall because your idol took drugs over a decade ago?
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11-06-2009 @ 8:48PM
exquisiteshoes said...
Ok guys, once you are in the top 500 you are in the wta and must abide by their rules. Yania was 50 in the world so she knew or her management needs to be changed that doping procedures will apply to her. It is part of the gossip in the locker room all the time. While I sympathize with her for the one year ban don't give me that cock and bull story that she did not know they were looking for her. If you ask me Yania you have to be hiding something thus your reason for hiding out as long as you did. I know many girls in the top 100 who conform to the rules and let the doping officials know where they are so sorry Yania but you deserve your punishment or the doping authorities will be sending the wrong message. As for you Agassi, you will have your place in the Hall of Shame.
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11-07-2009 @ 7:38AM
JTFloore said...
exactly how did taking crystal meth supposedly enhance agassi's performance? and if it didn't, then the pro tennis bureaucracy should have nothing to say about it.
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11-07-2009 @ 11:55AM
jgriz2000 said...
sorry; greg; she is paying for her own stupidity
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11-07-2009 @ 11:58AM
exp said...
This global drug conspiracy needs to stop. We are only wage war against the drugs to make more money. Our governments are corrupt. We put people in jail for taking Marijuana and now want to punish athletes for doing what they want with their body. Meth is not a performance enhancing drug. We need to arrest these frauds and put them all in jail next to those bankers who are hijacking the economy.
How come it's OK to send our soldiers to die in Afghanistan to watch those poppy fields. The government and these officials are all corrupt.
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11-09-2009 @ 6:35AM
KEVIN said...
AMEN!!!!!!!!!
11-07-2009 @ 12:03PM
Mister Man! :) said...
So I guess then Serena Williams should be brought up on charges for threating the life of a line judge. Jamming a ball down their throat is not to extend their lifetime.
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11-08-2009 @ 9:23AM
norms0616 said...
WILL THERE COME A DAY WHEN YOU WRITE AN ARTICLE AND NOT MENTION SERENA'S NAME? SERENA WAS FINED FOR HER TIRADE AND THAT'S THE RULE...NOW THIS YOUNG LADY SHOULD BE SUSPENDED BECAUSE THAT IS THE RULE...WHY DOMYOU HAVE TO COMPARE THE TWO? DO YOU REALLY THINK THE TENNIS POWERS THAT BE ARE GOING TO BAN THEIR CASH COW FROM THE AO? GET REAL. WHEN ARE YOU HATERS GOING TO REALISE THAT THIS WOMAN MAKES A LOT OF MONEY FOR ITF AND WTA. ALSO ALL THOSE OUT THERE WHO THINK KIM AND JUSTINE WILL BE A THREAT TO SERENA OR VENUS...THINK AGAIN. LOOK AT THEIR HEAD TO HEAD.THEY WILL ONLY BEAT THEM WHEN SERENA AND VENUS HAVE OFF GAMES. KIM SPENT TWO YEARS STUDYING THE GAMES OF BOTH VENUS AND SERENA AND THAT'S WHY SHE WON THE US OPEN....BUT REVENGEFUL SERENA WILL GIVE HER A BEAT DOWN NEXT TIME THEY MEET...WAIT AND SEE.ALL OF A SUDDEN KIM IS THE GODDESS OF TENNIS....WHY HAVENT SHE WON MORE SLAMS IF SHE WAS THAT GOOD...SERENA AND VENUS WAS WINNING SLAMS WHILE SHE PLAYING...BEFORE RETIREMENT....SO WHT SHOULD THE WILLIAM SISTERS BE SCARED OF HER NOW. AS FOR JUSTINE, SHE WILL HAVE A LOT OF OTHER PLAYERS TO WORRY ABOUT THAT VENUS & SERENA...
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11-08-2009 @ 7:15PM
rickroberts007 said...
For everyone that thinks Wickmayer is getting a raw deal, there are people like me. I've seen her temper tantrums destroy a local tournament (read up on Wickmayer at the Clearwater final this year), noted that she looks "'roided" in person compared to the other gals her age, and believe that a 'roider would come up with any excuse to avoid testing.
Am I sure she's dosing? Of course not. But I'm sure that she was caught breaking the rules.
From what I've read, a 1 year suspension is the minimum punishment.
So lets all agree that there are things we just don't know, and when a professional athlete is caught breaking the rules, they should be subject to the documented punishment.
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11-08-2009 @ 8:41PM
Robert said...
i never watch any sports it was very pain full to be teased as a child because i did so porly in athletics i was told to take a lap whitch i could not come plete years later i was advised i had an inlarged heart avery seryous defect but corectablebut the damage was done ihate sports of any kind
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11-08-2009 @ 9:52PM
upurs said...
they are all dope heads ..who cares..enhancement drugs..tha whole 9 yards..who are these officials trying to kid?...the only time they care is when they don't get their kickback..!
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11-08-2009 @ 10:50PM
Shelly said...
Agassi should have been honest at the time he did the drugs. Instead he waits till he's older and can make money to finally tell the truth. His fine should be no money. Give it all to people who need and deserves it. He certianly does not.
This just rewards drug users for and helps nobody. Drug users like he was should not be forgiven and there should be no time limit on procecuting this crime. All his awards need to be taken away from him. He's a loser and deserves nothing.
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11-08-2009 @ 10:51PM
BIG-TARGET said...
I hope Wickmeyer tell tennis's governing body, and WADA, to take their membership and SHOVE IT!!
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11-08-2009 @ 11:33PM
bmoneyiii said...
If this had been serena or oudin, theyd have swept this under the rug also...
btw..wickmayer has the best abs in women's tennis..bar none..
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11-08-2009 @ 11:56PM
vgkflc said...
Yeah they are acting like the NFL now. Dont come down on the guilty but punish someone for nothing.
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11-09-2009 @ 12:45AM
Jenny said...
I was an athlete that used to be in the US testing pool, USADA. Not reporting your whereabouts is pretty comparable a missed test. An athlete who did that wouldn't be able to be found to be tested, and that would be the perfect solution for an athlete that wanted to do a steroid cycle and not get caught. It's incredibly cumbersome and inconvenient to report your whereabouts as you always have to think of if you've reported any changes in your schedule or travel, but that's part of what comes with competing on such a high level. I hated doing it, but everyone else had to do it too, and I suppose it was what came as close as possible to ensuring a level playing field for everyone. While her circumstances may have been unfortunate, and while she may not have been guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs, the rules are the same for everyone. At that level, you have to think of things like that, as well as worry about everything that you put in your body that could possibly result in a positive test. If her circumstances were truly exceptional, maybe they could hold a hearing for her case.
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11-09-2009 @ 3:50AM
reconnav said...
When do they start requiring being informed of athlete's whereabouts once a day, or perhaps 24/7/356? Perhaps athletes need to be chipped like the performing animals they are?
Here's a better idea. let's chip the authorities who demand such compliance.
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11-09-2009 @ 4:59AM
chashea said...
I believe that in any organization you need rules and regulations in order to maintain control of the group involved. I believe that the memebers of that organization must follow those rules and regulations. In this casse the punishment does not fit the crime. It is so out of line that I believe that the rest of the women should back Wickmayer to the maximum. They should say if Wickmayer can not play in the next tournament they can not play either.
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