The meldonium saga is not over.
As facts unfold a clearer picture is coming into focus of the conduct of the sport authorities themselves entrusted by us to ensure that athletes are not cheating, as WADA itself comes under the spotlight for its meldonium procedures.
The facebook page Tennis Watch – Keep Tennis Drug Free first broke the story that WADA had failed in its due diligence by not obtaining excretion studies to establish the residency period of the drug, exposing itself to damages to athletes who had stopped the drug in December yet tested positive in 2016.
WADA very promptly made a historic U-turn by immediately announcing an exemption for athletes found with less than 1 mg/l of meldonium up to February 2016.
Following further investigation, Tennis Watch has now established that no studies even exist showing that meldonium is indeed a performance enhancing substance.
Its manufacturer, Grindeks, stated that “meldonium cannot improve athletic performance, but can stop tissue damage in the case of ischemia”.
The drug creator himself, Ivars Kalvins, of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, criticised WADA for the ban. He stated that WADA had not presented any scientific proof that the drug can be used for doping, that meldonium does not enhance athletic performance in any way, and was rather used by athletes to prevent damage to the heart and muscles caused by lack of oxygen during exercise.
He contended that not allowing athletes to take care of their health was a violation of their rights, and that the decision was actually aimed to remove Eastern Europeans from competitions and his drug from the pharmaceutical market.
But, it is not just the top experts involved in the manufacture of the drug who have spoken out.
Michael Joyner, an American professor who studies human response to physical and mental stress during exercise and other activities, said evidence is lacking for many compounds believed to enhance athletic performance.
“Meldonium use has a sort of urban legend element and there is not much out there that is clearly that effective,” he said.
“I would be shocked if this stuff (meldonium) had an effect greater than caffeine or creatine.”
Meanwhile, it is also disturbing to note that WADA was not exactly rushing to issue media releases to alert the world’s athletes to its addition of a widely used medicine on its banned substance list in January.
Caught off guard
This is why so many East European athletes were caught off guard in the first place.
Now, top WADA officials should shoulder responsibility for taking decisions that have seriously affected athletes’ careers based not on scientific research and protocol, but mere speculation and knowledge of prevalent use among East European athletes.
They should make way for new officials who can bring WADA’s integrity levels back up without meldonium-related baggage on their backs, compounded by serious claims of geo-political bias.
Failing this, sport may suffer untold damage as people increasingly feel that the most serious problems lie far beyond the athletes themselves.