Maria Sharapova's apology looks real!

Competition in sports in the 21st century can be compared to that of being in a war. The pressure athletes face is too much. Especially, the professional athletes. The very recent confession of Maria Sharapova about being tested positive in a drug test has left many flabbergasted. However, everyone should restrain from calling Maria Sharapova a cheat. Cheating is an intentional act. What she has committed is a mistake. And there is a big difference between cheating and mistake.

Her mistake was taking the drug Mildronate whose other name is Meldonium (she didn't know about this name for it). The fact that she has been taking this drug for past 10 years says a lot. As for why she was taking a drug which is not approved by the US government, is simply because she is a Russian citizen. The medicine was prescribed by her family doctor. The reason they are called 'family doctors' is because of the years of trust and faith one has in their medical practice. Therefore, it is quite natural for her to stick to her family doctor. Also, it is not necessary that she took the medicine in the US. She might have taken it in Russia. She didn't mention about the whereabouts of swallowing Meldonium. <blockquote>

A purport moral enquiry by many shouldn't ignore the single most relevant thing she and her lawyer asserted that her mistake was failing to open an e-mail from WADA in December alerting athletes to the changes in the list of prohibited substances. It was completely legal to take the drug until January 1, 2016. The window is too small for serious accusations. Sometimes traces of drugs remain inside your body for months.

Many argue the fact that her team could have checked it for her. However, sometimes athletes are travelling and they too need some privacy and maybe she didn't give her team access to her private emails. Also, Meldonium is not as effective as the hundreds of other performance enhancing drugs that are banned, so it would be a queer choice if staying within the rules were not her priority. It, therefore, makes even less sense that someone taking such an inept drug wouldn't ensure they were updated on the current status of the drug in their sport. Some athletes are expert in knowing how to get the drug out of their body which is why NADA introduced random drug tests policies. Let's not forget the case of Lance Armstrong. It would mean that someone like Sharapova was cheating by using a not particularly effective drug, hadn't taken even the most obvious measures to ensure she wouldn't get caught, and was caught at the very first opportunity.She inevitable has made a blunder and thus will face consequences which she deserves as she herself mentioned in her press conference.

Being a sportsperson, I am aware that athletes take creatine, HMB and all kinds of legal products to mildly enhance their performance.<blockquote> Most professional athletes ingest performance enhancing supplements. We have seen sportsman advertising Red Bull which claims to give you wings and several other supplements. Therefore, one should understand the fact that performance enhancing drugs are quite common (of course the legal ones). However, that does not make them Lance Armstrong. Honestly speaking, it can be quite painful for an athlete to keep up to date with anti-doping authorities expanding arbitrary lists of banned substances. It's quite a devious industry in itself that pays extremely well and consistently fails to keep pace with innovations.

I think she should be treated as a normal human being more than a famous sportsperson who committed a mistake and will serve some punishment for. She has been mature and courageous enough to have come out and taken the responsibility for her actions in a dignified manner and deserves credit. She understands the stature she holds in the sporting world and this incident indeed looks like a slip through the cracks

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