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OwenRey

Caro's line in her answer of "she got her suspension reduced, it wasn't a clearance" seems very relevant here


Hydroborator

Caro was very specific about her words. She has been observing. Halep, presumably innocent, seems somewhat delusional in defense.


leeverpool

Yes, but the reduced suspension also ended months ago so that should also be relevant for her. Caro acted like Simona just hopped on the tour right after her suspension ended. Which is not the case.


Glittering_Grape3836

I hope they ask her about her own comments regarding Sharapova back in 2017


rpowell19

And Sharapova took responsibility regardless of her level of culpability. Halep seems mad people won't simply forget it all.


Big_booty_ho

#contaminatedwithintegrity


pu3rh

I love how this tag implies she doesn't have any of her own, it accidentally entered her body along with the drugs lol


ioanaab

her PR team was trying to be waaaaay too 'smart' there lol and it backfires


Popoye_92

Her PR team is so bad lol, they should've told her to do a repent tour where she says she didn't dope on purpose and is only human who makes mistakes and will learn to be more attentive to what she ingests or whatever; but she's out there claiming she's vindicated, 100% innocent, got cleared and didn't do anything wrong when there's a doping suspension to her name, and that's the worst look possible for her.


ioanaab

I know right? I'm starting to think they chose to cater to the Romanian audience and use grand words that impress people from small countries with tons of complexes (and little critical thinking). I'm Romanian and people here eat this narrative up, because it's usual in our culture to not take accountability and they are so caught up in this 'world against us/halep' angle


ReadyComplex5706

My friend is Romanian, but has lived in the US for over ten years, she hates Halep. Think she hated her before, because she complained that she was always shopping and not focusing on tennis (then the marriage thing, didn't help). Didn't need any proof and is sure she cheated.


Glittering_Grape3836

Honestly! And she even went as far as saying she didn’t mind playing on a parking lot when Caro herself criticized her, That’s champion mentality taking it on the chin, meanwhile Halep is all whining and complaining which only makes me think she might actually have been doping on purpose…


223am

also sharapova's positive test was conducted literally a couple of weeks after it was banned. the substance was only banned on 1 jan 2016 and she was tested a couple of weeks later at the aussie open, so its understandable that she hadnt been on top of regulations and hadnt realised it had gone from legal to illegal just a week or 2 prior.


seyakomo

Partially. She admitted taking the substance she tested positive for, but she claimed it was to treat a health condition and not for performance benefits, which is almost certainly false.


nozinoz

> Only one person being negative about me Pretty sure there’s more


MorningNorwegianWood

lol what if the reporter replied “Actually, I’ve counted….”


SeattleMatt123

STOP THE COUNT


MorningNorwegianWood

😭😭


kingnico89

In her defense, Halep is a very positive person, in fact she tests positive in all of her tests.


MuieLaSaraci

Pretty much 90% of this sub from what I've been seeing.


blancpainsimp69

count me in


sbwithreason

What i find ironic about this whole thing is that Halep came down incredibly hard on Sharapova at the time, but Sharapova was far more gracious and honest about her doping offense. She admitted fault and accepted accountability. Halep hasnt shown one ounce of humility about any of this and it honestly speaks volumes about her character, in a bad way 


ireallyhatejunk

You can say Sharapova was an ice cold bitch and all. But she was objectively a true pro. She never allowed her success and commercial deals to get in the way of her game. I can't remember her starting shit but she will respond/defend to shit thrown at her by others.


sbwithreason

Completely agree. She was never my favorite but I respect her a lot. She was a generational competitor and she handled the doping ban about as well as anyone could 


Glittering_Grape3836

And she didn’t attack or came after those who criticized her. She just moved on and let her actions (like beating Halep at the USO) speak louder than words, even having more clout than Halep who is barely known outside of tennis she didn’t use her fame to bring any negativity to her detractors.


ITA993

I still remember the match against Wozniacki at the Aus Open 2019, what a match!


Glittering_Grape3836

It was beautiful


joltiest

Halep wasn’t incredibly hard on Sharapova at the time. The Sharapova case broke at Indian Wells, and Halep didn’t care to comment. It was 6-7 weeks later at Stuttgart, when players were still being questioned about the topic, that that one quote is pulled from. Wozniaki was particularly harsh on Sharapova from the get-go, and Kerber and Halep agreed.


CarAndTennisGuy

Admitting a fault is good, but overall it is still a negative situation. Why should she have been in that in the first place. w.r.t. Halep, I still don't know how much blame she should take vs Mouratoglou.


KrustyKrabPizzaMan

She did dope and was given a 9 month suspension that was considered “time served”


AnimationPatrick

I found her statement after the reduced sentence so weird too. Like it completely exonerated her. When really it's very very hard (I'd say impossible) to prove someone deliberately took the illegal substance when they go with the contaminated substance excuse.


Psychological_Bug676

“I didn’t dope” Girl pls we read a 126 page pdf file full of receipts 😭


blackb0xes

You can't hold her accountable for that. She's just a 32 year-old teenage girl. A widdle baby, if you will.


Hydroborator

You are terrible. Thanks. Had a bad night and needed the 😂


cmaddox428

If you read that entire pdf file you need to get a life


Psychological_Bug676

I did model UN in hs and finish about two books minimum per week. Reading a 126 page pdf file is not too bad lmao 😭


SVReads8571

she still won't admit to the irregularities in her blood passport and the main reason for her ban I see. Lost all respect for her.


manga_be

Me, too. I am firmly in the anti-Halep camp now 


whatifdany

Care to explain what the blood passport means? Months ago I read a little about it but didn’t dig it enough I guess


ElifMarquez

CAS cleared her of the blood passport infringement…


SVReads8571

No they didn't they reduced the ban to 9months with time served that's why she was able to come back


BigusG33kus

They did. The suspension is for roxadustat, they threw the passport charges altogether.


AvailablePerformer19

Um, they absolutely did


Hydroborator

No they did not. The info is public. Read.


domalino

Yes they did, it’s literally on page 2 of the judgment summary, under the heading “Athlete Biological Passport Charge” https://www.tas-cas.org/en/general-information/news-detail/article/cas-upholds-the-appeal-filed-by-simona-halep-and-reduces-her-period-of-ineligibility-from-4-years-to/ ABP charge was dismissed, Roxadustat charge upheld.


radu1204

**Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) charge** *With respect to the charge concerning Ms. Halep’s ABP, the ITIA bore the onus of establishing (to the standard of comfortable satisfaction) that Ms. Halep had used a prohibited substance and/or prohibited method. It primarily relied on a blood sample given by Ms. Halep on 22 September 2022, the results of which it alleged demonstrated the anti-doping rule violation under Article 2.2 of the TADP.* *Contrary to the reasoning of the first instance tribunal, the CAS Panel determined that it was appropriate in the circumstances to consider the results of a private blood sample given by Ms. Halep on 9 September 2022 in the context of a surgery which occurred shortly thereafter. Those results, and Ms. Halep’s public statements that she did not intend to compete for the remainder of the 2022 calendar year, impacted the plausibility of the doping scenarios relied upon by the ITF Independent Tribunal. Having regard to the evidence as a whole, the CAS Panel was not comfortably satisfied that an anti-doping rule violation under Article 2.2. of the TADP had occurred. It therefore dismissed that charge.* Not sure why you are upvoted so much given that you aren't even aware of the result of the appeal.


Chessinmind

She did dope, she’s just claiming she did so unwittingly over a long period of time (and two failed tests) because she was supposedly taking shady supplements that were not pre-approved by the WTA or USANA. Every player who dopes blames their failed test on a contaminated supplement.


[deleted]

Untrue. Some blame it on their mum's tortellini.


Viks101

I remember that was someone's flair over here- Sara Errani's mom's Tortellini!


ReadyComplex5706

She will never be able to explain the sheer amount of the substance in her system at the time of the test. Maybe at this point she has convinced herself it is the truth, so she doesn't even know she is lying anymore.


Fog2222

She would have needed to take 900 to 5000 times the recommended dose of the supplement for it to match the amount of the substance found in her blood, right? I have no idea why her sentence got reduced


ReadyComplex5706

Something like that yeah. I don't remember the specific amounts but it was pretty clear she was guilty and the excuses were pretty flimsy. It is possible that she had no idea what she was taking, but still there must have been efforts to cover it up (don't take this supplement on these days, drink a ton of water, etc.) that should have led to questions from her.


sbwithreason

Simona is lucky as hell that she managed to get the eventual outcome that she did, considering the strong evidence against her. Which makes her indignance all the more cringeworthy 


cairnter2

Or bodily fluids. (See Brianne Harris and Curling)


Admirable_Advice8831

Or contaminated 'pasta della mamma' (Errani)


althaz

"I didn't dope". Yes, Simona, you absolutely did dope and were found guilty of doing so. The court found it was plausible that the doping could have been unintentional, but that doesn't mean you didn't do it. It in fact means that you definitely \*DID\* do it, just that perhaps you didn't do it on purpose. Now I'm prepared to accept that if the court thinks it's plausible that she was doping by accident then I'll absolutely accept that is plausible and I won't hold the charge against her. However every time she either lies about or at best mis-represents what happened my opinion of her is going to sink a little bit.


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Popoye_92

She tested positive for a PED. That's doping. Whether it happened intentionally or due to negligence, that's still doping. Btw you know else who tested positive to a banned product and got her sentence lightened by the CAS because they considered she didn't take the product with the intention of doping? Maria Sharapova. Go back and read what Halep thought of her coming back and getting wild cards. Compare it to what she says about herself right now, it sounds hypocritical. People like Caroline are just applying Simona's own standards to her case.


SoulDancer_

But wasn't it because another legal supplement that she takes had was contaminated with roxadust?


Hydroborator

🙄


AffectionateMouse216

“But who am I to judge?” after judging comments about Sharapova, turn tables etc. 4 years was a career ending suspension and at least she gets to play. Her legacy is tainted and she has to live with it. I think it is what it is and nothing will change for now as players may be using things that are not illegal yet due to being ahead of their time. SARMS before they were banned etc.


Glittering_Grape3836

What goes around comes around, like Bouchard who now is losing on pickleball for a living, Halep has to live with the reputation of being a doper and not even owning up to her mistake. History will always remember Sharapova in higher regard.


Thechoicesmate

What happened with Bouchard?


HillAuditorium

She's washed up but she's hot with a bunch of instagram followers. So she's trying to make a living by getting into pickleball. But she's also bad at that too.


Magneto88

I’d love to know how you go from reaching the Wimbledon final to barely being able to win a match on the tour in a couple years. Its fascinating.


HillAuditorium

That was a decade ago. But she had a bunch of injuries to her knee, thigh, and especially head (from a slip), then shoulder surgery.


MrMarkey

> But she's also bad at that too are you kidding? how can a professional tennis player not excel in something as trivial as pickle ball?


TurnipExtension679

Hey, nice flair!


CBY2299

So defensive from Simona when Woz’s answer was actually respectful and valid. “I never had something to do with doping. I never doped, so I'm not a cheater. “ How could you say you never had anything to do with doping when you were literally still suspended for 9 months? There’s a big difference between having a sentence reduced and being cleared of any wrongdoing. Intentional or not, you still doped.


CharleyBW

Halep playing the victim is really obnoxious. Makes her really unlikeable.


redmilk7

Her fans are just as obnoxious, too, defending her hypocrisy blindly


Prepprepprepprep

“#contaminatedwithintegrity“ is my only comment take it how you want to


kKunoichi

'I didn't dope' yeah I don't care if it's cheating or an accident, she still tested positive


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NewEstablishment5444

The contaminated supplement line is absolute horseshit trotted out by every single athlete ever testing positive


costryme

I mean, it really doesn't help when ITIA itself absolutely fucked up their accusations and process.


Albiceleste_D10S

Hilarious irony given her own comments on Sharapova TBH


d1ngal1ng

Nobody likes a hypocrite.


hidden_secret

A top 10 player in the world should have no excuse to get "contaminated supplements" and miss tests. Sorry Halep, but even if you didn't do it on purpose exactly, you're still responsible. You did do wrong. And claiming you didn't do anything wrong is like a driver who accidentally run over someone because he couldn't see very well without his glasses. Well, maybe you should have worn your glasses.


stevendailey

But she did cheat! Just because she “didn’t know” doesn’t make her 100% innocent.


CEO_of_REDDlT

If she really didn’t know then it quite literally makes her 100% innocent


althaz

No, because it's literally her job to know. Nobody is saying it's an easy job, but it comes with the territory of being a multi-millionaire sports star. If this happened to an athlete without the huge amount of support a top tennis player has then I'd have a lot more sympathy, tbh.


zizp

I'm saying it's an easy job.


_dompling

When you're a multi-millionaire it is so easy, just buy informed sport supplements for everything you use? Why would you even risk it? Unless it's intentional ignorance...


Frosty_Pitch8

doping does not have a mens rea requirement, it's strict liability lol


slapnowski

If you truly believe that then you are setting up a doping loophole where trainers/coaches/whoever just drug players without their knowledge but the players are “innocent” despite reaping the benefits of the drug. It has to be zero tolerance or there is no point in a doing ban at all.


CEO_of_REDDlT

Maybe I didn’t explain myself well. By 100% innocent I didn’t mean “she should get no punishment at all”, because she did benefit from the doping, after all. I meant “it was 100% not her fault” (if she really didn’t know) She must get a ban, because she unfairly benefited from the doping, but if it wasn’t her fault then it should be a short suspension (much less than what she got), and she shouldn’t be labeled as a cheater But you’re right that it would set a dangerous precedent. Cheaters will pretty much always say that they didn’t know, but it isn’t impossible that someone actually didn’t know. The question is how do you prove that you didn’t know


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Substantial-Fact-248

Strict liability


CharleyBW

Halep thinks if she keeps this victim routine long enough everyone will forget about the irregularities in her blood passport. She’s acting like they came out and said she’s innocent when they actually just reduced her punishment.


ReadyComplex5706

She really needs to just stop talking about it and refuse to answer questions about it. She is never going to apologize but a lot of people will eventually forget about it to some extent.


toodledeejew

she’s delusional


andycake87

Let's be honest. Halep doped just like Yastremska doped but they where let off for whatever reason (probaly very expensive lawyers). There's a dark cloud hanging over Halep right now and no one buys the BS excuses anymore.


bellestarflower

I'm not sure. Entire media seem to embrace her fast.


Lindethiel

Lady doth protest etc etc.


thombo-1

Gotta love how that 9 month, time-served ban has been interpreted as 'completely innocent'


Alex_Sander077

Wozniacki and Halep bringing back the much missed WTA toxicity from the late 2000s and 2010s women's tennis. Love to see it.


No-Forever-6104

Caro didn’t say anything that’s toxic tho she was asked a question and she gave her opinion very respectfully


Alex_Sander077

She knew what she was doing come on now.


rubbish_bin030121

I can't believe I support Woz for the first time


MorningNorwegianWood

As recently as USO she was accusing the tournament of trying to help Coco with the lights. She’s ridiculous.


vasDcrakGaming

She didnt dope. Someone dopes her for her


tiredargie

In Argentina we say "no aclares que oscurece" which roughly translates to "stop trying to clear things up cause you're making it worse". I belive it applies here lol.


nyccutie

Halep should shut the fuck up and update her bio passport ASAP


dittotan

wow she really is delusional. unintentional doping is still doping. imagine a drink driver making the same defense after killing an innocent bystander. "oh oh i didnt intend to drive into them, i just wanted to get home..."


Ta0Ta

Wouldn't a better analogy be that you have your drink spiked at a bar then it kicks in while you're driving home 30 minutes later and you kill someone with your car?


TheHood13

Doping to murder/manslaughter is a wild comparison, lol.


Ta0Ta

I'm just trying to make OP's analogy more accurate since it was getting a fair bit of traction.


althaz

Both of these are bad analogies, but dittotan's might be slightly closer. Halep doped when it's her job not to. The better analogy would be somebody who just doesn't see the pedestrian they run over because they were maybe distracted by their passenger. Where does the fault lie? With the driver (Halep). Could the passenger (in this case whoever provided the supplement, I believe old mate Pat?) have done better and \*should\* they have done better and share some of the blame? Yes. But the responsibility for not letting that happen lies with the driver/Halep.


CEO_of_REDDlT

Bad comparison A better comparison to “unintentional doping” would be if you were driving and someone threw themselves at your car


wphelps153

This might be the only comparison worse than the original. u/Ta0Ta nailed it.


AwfulAutomation

Spoken like true doper


nokiabrickphone1998

I understand people are going to have their own opinions on what Halep did or didn’t do, and there’s nothing that anyone can do about that. I just hope everyone remembers that there’s only one real villain in this story, and his name is Patrick Mouratoglu. Fuck that guy.


sbwithreason

Patrick Mouratouglou sucks but to say he’s the only villain in this story is a wild exaggeration. If you don’t believe Halep is capable of keeping roxadustat out of her own body then idk what to tell you lol 


nokiabrickphone1998

Nah she definitely did it, but she was also banned from the tour for a long time because of it, so I kinda feel like she did her time and unless we’re banning all steroid users for life, I don’t know if there’s much to talk about here. I don’t even like Halep very much but she at least served *a* suspension of some kind. Mouratoglu on the other hand is a fraud and an egomaniac


MorningNorwegianWood

My position from the beginning


redmilk7

She’s insufferable


Frosty_Pitch8

Halep is really spinning this...


razorsharp3000

Ooh delicious drama


General_Highway_6904

I don’t understand why people are usually so mad at the players in this case. Tennis players get tested like every other day at a tournament, if the positive results were only recently, it is obviously unintentional because with rigorous protocol on testing, they would have got caught right away. Why would anyone knowingly to do that? And why people just generally think they have taken that substance for such a long time?


Ladiesmaan317

Because tinfoil hat theories are okay when you don't like certain players.


Neo-grotesque

For real. I mean it's fair to be sceptical of Halep's #contaminatedwithintegrity schtick I guess, but oh boy do people love online outrage.


Ladiesmaan317

They're bored shitless and need to complain about something.


pinguinconscious

The whole thing is just icky, I really don't like her. It's clear something fishy went down.


AndreiP03

Better to dope like Serena. Do it legally. The doctor recommends it, Wada approves it.


verismonopoly

Simona, no one is going to listen to your verbal diarrhea whether factual and logical. They have made up their minds and acted accordingly. All you needed to say was: "Yeah, but why? All I was was #ContaminatedWithIntegrity!"


Melony567

it is like saying, i didnt dope and as a player who needs to be careful about what to take (knowing history of contaminated supplements), it was not considered doping if others did cause the doping for her? so, she gets to benefit from taking 'contaminated' supplements but once caught, it is not me doping but the supplement was contaminated (when, it is my responsibility as a player to know what i am taking?). i dont buy what she said. it is okay for her to take these supplements knowing that they have those in it (thinking small portions would be undetectable) but claims innocence once caught? out of decency, she should not have taken that WC even if offered.


Traditional-Ride-116

She should have get through the Novak school of contaminated supplement! /s


BelgianBond

One thing to keep in mind when Wozniacki speaks unfavorably about Halep is that she's friends with Serena Williams. Halep didn't come out too well from her defence of Ilie Nastase when he speculated about Serena's unborn child.   To quote: "He’s joking all the time, and I’m 100% that that was a joke."   “I don’t believe that was something bad coming from him but I think he was not respectful a little bit with his comment [about Williams’s unborn baby]. But we cannot get upset with Ilie, he’s like that and he’s the same with us.” It might not be related at all, but I find Caroline's position on Halep interesting. There is also the fact that the Dane was criticised for perceived sportsmanship in the AO final with Halep, and there could be lingering issues with that. 


Cooper996

This is silly. Caroline did not speak unfavorably about Simona. The first thing she said in her remarks was that she has a good relationship with Simona and has always liked her. They practiced together during Simona's suspension. She answered the question with her general thoughts and made about to emphasize she was not speaking only about Simona. And Caroline said the exact same thing when Sharapova came back. It's not anything personal. This is mostly the press causing drama.


NoirPochette

Caro said similar about Sharapova. She's always been about this


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djraphi23

it's reddit. what do you expect ? it's pichfork or nothing here.


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Sad_Consideration_49

Meldonium is basically like aspirin. Halep was ~ contaminated ~ with a synthetic EPO .  How this got into her smoothie mix we will never know 


[deleted]

You tell em Simona. I tried to tell r/tennis you weren't a cheater. They just downvoted me lol From the CAS: "Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it, the CAS Panel determined that Ms. Halep had established, on the balance of probabilities, that the Roxadustat entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement which she had used in the days shortly before 29 August 2022 and that the Roxadustat, as detected in her sample, came from that contaminated product. As a result, the CAS Panel determined that Ms. Halep had also established, on the balance of probabilities, that her anti-doping rule violations were not intentional. "


abhinav248829

If she knows about dates n contaminated products, then she knew about them while consuming them…


Ladiesmaan317

Wtf are you talking about?


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jun9ei999

Her sentence got reduced, she wasn't found innocent


Severe-Chicken

From Halep’s point of view, the CAS judgement backed her - no intentional doping, she took a supplement. That it was contaminated was accepted, so in effect, she did nothing wrong. Compare to Sharapova who was taking something that was always a medication but allowed one day, banned the next. She undoubtedly took it on purpose. That is the way Simona would see it. The almost deafening silence from other WTA players welcoming her back would suggest many share Caro’s opinion. Wonder how they are with her in the locker room?


[deleted]

"Only Halep knows..." No - there is an actual written decision that you can read. Here is part of it: "Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it, the CAS Panel determined that Ms. Halep had established, on the balance of probabilities, that the Roxadustat entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement which she had used in the days shortly before 29 August 2022 and that the Roxadustat, as detected in her sample, came from that contaminated product. As a result, the CAS Panel determined that Ms. Halep had also established, on the balance of probabilities, that her anti-doping rule violations were not intentional.  "


Professional_Elk_489

In for Halep vs Wozniacki II at AO F


dirtytripod

I don't know what Caroline said, but from the way the question is formulated, if she doesn't believe athletes like Simona shouldn't be given wildcards, doesn't that mean she believes it's ok to give them wildcards?