The current year has been proclaimed by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) as the Year of Meldonium in Russia and around the world. It is still not clear why the officials liked this component so much, but for some reason they decided to add it to the list of prohibited ones. This came as a complete surprise to many athletes who were on the extended list for disqualification. Against the background of this history, already blurred for six months, one can recall who else from the representatives of sports did doping leave aside from his profession.
Any football fan, even one who has just learned about football from a more experienced dad, has heard the name of Diego Armando Maradona. The world-famous legend, the famous inventor of the "hand of God" in the match with England - that's all about him. In 1991, the football community learned that Maradona periodically resorted to the help of cocaine, in which the football player, as he himself claimed, was his salvation from stress and stress. The Argentinean's arguments were not accepted with understanding by the anti-doping committee, and Maradona had to leave professional football for a year. His return turned out to be no less loud. During the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Diego quite violently celebrated his goal against Greece, deciding to show everyone his maximum close-up. It was this attack of joy that cost him another doping scandal. Suspecting that something was wrong in Maradona's gaze on that very frame, FIFA officials decided to take the player's blood for analysis. The Argentinean passed the doping test after the next match with Nigeria. Unfortunately, ephedrine and its derivatives found among the erythrocytes and leukocytes of Maradona were at that time banned in sports circles. So the Argentine legend went to trial again, for 15 months.
Apparently, the sad experience of the albacelesti football player taught representatives of all types to be extremely careful. This is evidenced by the fact that the next world-class doping scandal waited 12 years later. This time, cycling "excelled". Floyd Landis won the Tour de France and was required to undergo a doping test. For Landis, everything ended in failure, and after the discovery of traces of synthetic testosterone in his blood, the cyclist lost the title of winner of the Tour de France. An even more severe fate befell his compatriot and colleague in the shop - the famous Lance Armstrong, who for a long time was considered a real hero who defeated cancer. As it turned out in 2012, not only moral and volitional qualities helped the American to endure physical activity. In the course of the investigation initiated by WADA after the positive results of one of the athlete's doping tests, he confessed to the use of substances unacceptable by the code. And when the officials of the International Cycling Union learned that this had been happening since 1998, their verdict was harsh and adamant: to strip Armstrong of all titles from the above period. The racer was banned from the competition for life.
I would like to end the story with the story of Michael Phelps, a swimming genius who set every conceivable and inconceivable record for the number of gold medals at the Olympic Games and World Championships. In 2009, at one of the friendly parties, the meticulous paparazzi caught the American for a session of drug use. The pictures got into the press, a scandal erupted, but it did not grow into anything serious, despite the fact that there were rumors that Phelps had been abusing for a long time. So a person whose life, one might say, passes in water, came out of it dry.
