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DIARY
Did She or Didn't She?
When I saw the headline about Martina Hingis having tested positive for cocaine, my first reaction was no way----let me tell you why:
Every time you play singles at a Grand Slam event, win or lose, you get tested. You give a urine sample and after a last match of any kind, sometimes you give blood as well. You know you will be tested.
You would either have to be really thick or very cocky to think you would not get busted if you were to do a line or smoke a little weed at a party. Mind you the penalty is the same for recreational use of drugs like cocaine and marijuana as it is for performance enhancing drugs like human growth hormones or blood doping(EPO). The penalty is the same for one puff of grass as it is for long term usage of steroids. Whether this is fair or not is another column.
There are two kinds of players: The first kind is those who don't take any drugs---they are completely clean with a clear conscience yet still petrified that somehow your sample will test positive.
The other kind is the cheater. They wonder if this time they will get away with it again or if they will be caught. The innocent players can never be 100% sure there is nothing in their bloodstream. I will give you a couple of examples from my own career:
Example #1- A few years ago, while on a practice court at the Australian Open, I mistakenly picked up someone else's bottle of what I thought was water and realized, after taking a couple of big gulps, that it had a sweet taste. I panicked-what is in this bottle? I took it to the doping control people, explained what happened, and they said there is nothing they could do. I kept a sample for a few months in case my A sample tested positive. I figured I could take the bottle and tell them whatever I tested for-it is in here.
Example #2- I was in Holland for a tournament the week before Wimbledon and walked into a juice bar to order my favorite juice and realized this was no ordinary juice bar-there ae several people smoking pot-as it is legal in Holland. I left immediately but wondered if there is any way I could test positive for a trace of marijuana in my system as it was quite smoky in there.
Example #3- I was at my mom's in the Czech Republic a couple of weeks before the Athens Olympics and since I had just arrived from the US, pretty jetlagged I wanted to get a good night's sleep. My mom gives me a sleeping pill. I take a 1/4 of it, sleep like a baby. In the morning I realized-oh no- I have no idea what was in that pill. I wrote down the name of it and duly reported it at the signing in in Athens. As it turned out, we did not medal and were not tested and there was no problem. But I sure did worry. Of course the stupidity was mine for taking the pill in the first place. Still, it would have been a steep price to pay for that transgression. The point is you can get busted and be completely innocent.
Another way of testing positive is to have someone slip something in your food or drink. It would be easy to do- an angry rival or crazed parent slips a "mickey" into your food or drink; this has happened with poison in fact. Or, someone gets paid off at the player cafeteria and again puts something in your food-very simple. Or, as I suspect might have been the case with Martina Hingis, she is at a party, maybe there are some drugs around, of course she says no. When she goes to the bathroom and someone thinks they are being cute, they drop a bit of the white stuff into her drink.
I have no idea if the urine sample could have been someone else's as I have no knowledge of what the chain of events is once the urine sample gets tested. Hingis and her lawyers sure seem to think that is a definite possibility. But how do you fight that and how can you prove that?
Or it might have been the right urine, but Martina H. never knowingly ingested coke. Again-how do you prove that?
It is easy to be cynical about athletes' denials. I, along with millions of fans, am completely disappointed and disgusted with Marion Jones. But let us remember that taking cocaine a few days before a match is not the same as a performance enhancing drug-at-but it is still against the rules. It would have been less damaging for Martina H. to come clean (so to speak) and own up to the fact that she used the drug at a party. But of course that would make sense only if she is truly guilty.
Despite her excellent tennis career, no matter what Hingis did or did not do, when you google her name, Hingis and cocaine are now tied together. This is not a way to end a career. And if Martina H. really did not take the stuff, that is the true shame of it all.
April 10,
2007
Hello everyone -
What have I been up to
lately? More like what haven't I been up to lately. First
off-the Toyota pro-celebrity race in Long Beach. The race
itself is on the 14th of April, but I have spent 3 days of
training at Willow Springs racetrack (about 50 miles east of
L.A.) along with the other 24 pro racers and celebs. Also
spent 2 days at the Bondurant racing school in Chandler,
Arizona as I was in town for a speech anyway. Lyn St.James
(yes,the Indy 500 Lyn St.James) took me under her wing and
provided, along with my instructor Mike, some much needed
help. What a blast that was.
I also went to Paris for
the opening of Juro's and my exhibit of Art Grand Slam. The
exhibit is at the museum at Roland Garros,so all you fans who
are going to the French Open this year can check it out for
yourselves. It was very well received and I hope the players
especially will enjoy it.
I also did a couple of
fundraisers for our GLBT community - I have been travelling
too much for my taste, all in 1-4 day increments so I have not
had that much of an opportunity to watch TV, especially March
Madness. But I was cheering for the Rutgers womens basketball
team all the way as I have met Vivian Stringer a few times and
what a wonderful woman she is. I would have loved to have
played ball for her. So I was even more incensed than you can
imagine after the comments Don Imus made during his radio
show. He apparently likes to insult just about everyone, but
his comments this time were beyond insulting. So far an
apology seems to have saved his job. I don't think an apology
is enough. Had he called these same women monkeys, he would
have been fired immediately. But somehow calling them
prostitutes is not enough of an insult to warrant the same
result. I think this is wrong and I think he should be fired.
Period.
That is all for now...
February
22, 2007
Well what do you know - women are now going
to make the same amount of money at Wimbledon. Equal prize
money is here at last. Which now leaves the French Open as the
only Grand Slam event that does not offer equal money to the
women. The French will announce their prize money structure in
a few weeks and the pressure will definitely be on to follow
in the All England Lawn Tennis Club footsteps. Otherwise
Christian Bimes will look pretty desperate trying to explain
why his tournament is the only one still trying to hang on to
some bad 20th century logic. If and when all the slams will
offer equal money to everyone we can start talking about the
real issue here - why is the prize money so low compared to
the profits made in all the slams.
Tennis has fallen
so far behind in prize money compared to what the golfers are
making - it is sad. And the Grand Slams, I believe, play a big
part in this. By not increasing the money enough to keep up
with the net profits, the game's profile suffers. (One must
keep in mind the prize money in a slam is over a two-week
period, so in effect the season ending championships pay twice
as much as a slam). So let's see what happens when the French
announce their payout and we'll go from there.
For now
- kudos to Wimbledon for doing the right thing, even if it did
a few more decades that it should have taken. Here is to
equality for women around the world and this is a very small
step in that direction!
January 30,
2007
Well,the Australian Open is over and
surprise,surprise-Federer won!
Roger has no peer at the
moment and is only playing against tennis history and for his
place within it. What mastery. The only way players can
compete against him now is 2 out of 3 sets as that puts a
little bit more pressure on him. 3 out of 5 Roger just knows
he has the upper hand as someone would have to play pretty
flawless tennis over 5 sets. And no one has been able to do
that other than Nadal on clay. The French open will be very
interesting.
And now on to Serena Wiliiams winning-wow.
She certainly had her game face on during the tournament-the
finals particularly-and her game got better as the tournament
went on. Nadia Petrova could have and should have beaten
Serena in straight sets, but got a little careful. Williams
served her way out of trouble repeatedly and won that match as
well as against Peer and Vaidisova. How well she could move
with that frame of hers is amazing. Because she is carrying a
little extra weight she is not as quick as she used to be, but
once Serena gets moving, she is still very fast and man oh
man, her serve is a thing of effortless beauty. I am surprised
at her how she dismantled Sharapova in the finals. Like I
said-the French will be very interesting.
Speaking of
which-Juro Kralik and I are doing an exhibition of Art Grand
Slam in Paris later this year-details to come later-and
this week-the first week in February-Juro and I will be making
more creations in Sarasota.
On the political side-just
how much more power is president Bush planning on giving
himself? We don't have a lame duck president, but we just
might have a lame-duck Congress if he keeps going in this
direction....
What do you guys think?
November 1, 2006
Well, a lot has
happened since my last post. When I was asked during the US
Open what my goal was for the tournament, I said to have fun
and play well, but most of all come away with a title. And I
did all of that - had fun, played some great ball and won the
mixed - thanks to a great partner, Bob Bryan, and a little
luck - both first and second round matches could have gone
either way. Even though we dominated on the stat sheets -
service breaks and break points, we split sets both times and
had to pull it out in that ridiculous flip of a coin - the
match tie-break.
It turned the final against
Damm-Peschke was our most straightforward match of the
tournament. Nadia and I played a good tournament as well, but
unfortunately for us, Raymind and Stosur played a really great
match against us in the quarters, only to lose the next day
while not playing quite as well. That is how it goes
sometimes. All in all I was happy with my performance, had
great partners who worked their butts off and ended my career
on a win.
Since my "retirement" - and this one is
FINAL - I have been back and forth between Sarasota, NY, Los
Angeles-twice-and Czech Republic. That was visiting mom, who
is home and better. Mom cooked a killer mushroom soup-the best
she ever made-as well as an apple strudel that I will try to
duplicate soon-fantastic as well. Staying with her is a
challenge so as not to put on weight. While there Juro Kralik
and I had an exhibition of Art Grand Slam in Prague-it will be
there through November. The opening was a big hit and while
some newspapers there tried to suggest I started painting
since I retired because I had nothing else to do, most gave us
good reviews. Incidentally, this collaboration was a 6 year
project!!!! Juro and I made over 200 paintings together - check the
website.
I have also become a member of AARP,
thanks to my turning 50 in october. Now it is on to South
Africa for the Laureus Academy Forum. I have never been there
and am looking forward to going to the home country of many of
my good friends-like Liezel Huber, Mariaan DeSwardt, Michael
DeJongh and of course Roger Anderson. Unfortunately I am only
going for three!!! days as I have a corporate "gig" in the
Bahamas.
The rest of the year I will be doing a few
more appearances promoting my book as well as the Rainbow
card. Like I said-what retirement? I just don't have to
practice anymore...
September 3, 2006
Well, time for an update. It has been a great summer - one
tournament, one win (montreal 2 weeks ago). And now it is my
last week playing, period.
So far so good, 2 doubles
wins, 1 mixed and feeling better and better as the tournament
goes on. Knee is not even an issue at all, thanks to some
rehab and great work by Richard Sutton, an awesome physio from
S.Africa. I wish I had him 20 years ago. Or at least 15...but
better late than never. Had a great mixed with Bob against his
brother Mike and Corina Morariu. Mixed doubles is always a
matter of a couple of points here and there and it is
especially true here with that ridiculous super tie-break
instead of a proper 3rd set. We dominated play and enough
break points to have won 2 and 2 and we also could have lost
in 2 sets. But thanks to some great play by Bob, we got
through, 10-4 in the breaker.
So now it is the last
few matches. I just need to keep my feet on the ground as I am
so excited to be playing here and excited about my life after
this. So stay tuned, I feel some great tennis coming up. And I
will hit a 110mph serve - at least once - I did a 108, so it
is in the grasp...as you know I am all about setting goals -
and here I want to hit a 110+mph serve AND win a title!!!!
July 11, 2006
It was a bittersweet
Wimbledon for me.
First the bitter part - it was on the
same day when Liezel Huber and I lost our quarterfinal match
against Yan and Zheng and Mark Knowles and I lost the mixed in
the round of 16 to Zvonareva-Ram. It all happened so quickly,
same day - Thursday, same court - court 2. Strange how it is -
you prepare for so long to get ready for this event in
particular, the tournament goes on forever and then poof, in a
matter of a few hours it's all over. And it used to be for me,
well, next year then. But of course, it is not next year. This
was the last one and the end was very anticlimactic. But that
is the way it goes.
Now the sweet part - well,
semisweet part - both of the teams we lost to went on and won
the whole thing. Whoopee...
The sweet part was that I
did everything I could to win. Prepared the best I could,
played some great tennis and laid it all on the line. Came up
short, but had a great trip along the way. And that's what
it's all about in the end. So long Wimbledon and now it's on
to the U.S. Open. See you there.
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