Maria Sharapova has been banned by International Tennis
Federation (ITF) after testing positive for using meldonium at Australian Open
in January 2016.
She said, “I has been using meldonium as recommended by her
family doctor since 2006 for some health issue.”
Before 1 January 2016, meldonium was not in the banned list
of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Earlier meldonium was known as mildronate that she
explained, was not aware of that it put on the banned list.
The tribunal concluded that she do not use meldonium for
performance enhancement, and her offence was unintentional.
She said, “While
the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the
anti-doping rules, I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension. The
tribunal, whose members were selected by the ITF, agreed that I did not do
anything intentionally wrong, yet they seek to keep me from playing tennis for
two years. I will immediately appeal the suspension portion of this ruling to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).” on her Facebook page.