The Austrian anti-doping agency has
requested that its disciplinary committee sanction Tamira Paszek with a temporary ban because of a
treatment she received involving extracting, enriching and replacing her blood. Paszek's defense was that she did not know she had broken any rule by having the treatment. She now has seven days to respond to the committee.
This is fishy... is this commission linked to Austria's tennis federation? Paszek's had problems with them forever, and she was threatening to defect to Brazil after the Olympics, no? Now Austria wants to ban her for an obviously unintentional violation (which clearly didn't help her all that much). Bad taste in my mouth.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, it was Paszek's responsibility to know the rules. On the other hand, the ITF commission has not exactly set a standard of fairness and consistency for others to follow. How Austria's committee defines "temporary" will be the key, I think.
ReplyDelete