Snort of a Problem

One of the nice things about pro tennis is that it has so far avoided the steroid scandal that other sports have become embroiled in. I'm not sure why this is¹. However, a drug of an entirely different sort has reared its ugly head: Cocaine.

Perhaps tennis is just 30 years behind baseball. What makes this all noteworthy are the circumstances behind the cases and the rules regarding cocaine. Firstly and most shockingly, cocaine is considered a performance enhancing substance. No, really. If there is a way to describe coke, "performance enhancing" is not one of them².

The penalty for a first-time cocaine offense? Two year ban. No, really. That seems perfectly reasonable and just for a recreational drug. Not counseling, a fine, or even a one month ban. Two years.

Two top players have been busted in the last two years: Martina Hingis in 2007 and Richard Gasquet this year. In both cases, the player denied using steroids and fought the ban. Hingis' attempts were rebuffed; Gasquet was cleared.

There are so many levels of stupidity behind these things, it's hard to sort them out. Hingis' defense centered around inconsistencies in the testing and handling of samples. This is generally a bad idea; organizations do not like the accusation they did something wrong. It's not much of a surprise, then, that her appeal failed. What was Gasquet's accepted defense? That he kissed some girl at a nightclub, and she probably did some coke, and that resulted in his failing the test. No, really.

Read the finding by the tribunal in his appeal. Try not to marvel at the how dumb Gasquet's story is and how idiotic the panel had to be in order to buy it.

Gasquet's positive test was 151 ng/ml. This is the equivalent of the size of a grain of salt. Hingis? 42 ng/ml. That's right, a trace of cocaine one-third the size a grain of salt triggered a two-year ban that effectively ended her career. I can't completely fault the tennis governing bodies for this; they follow the World Anti-Doping Agency and this is their rule. However, it's a stupid rule and doesn't do any good.

Oh, and just for fun: The amount you need to fail a test in the American military is 150 ng/ml³. So it's actually easier to fail a cocaine test if you're an athlete than if you're in the armed forces. Now which are you more concerned about being on coke?

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1 And frankly, I don't really care. If steroids made Rafael Nadal the fist-pumping, testosterone-exuding champion he is, great! I want to see tennis played as well as it possibly can be.

2 I realize it could theoretically help. But seriously, do you really think people are snorting coke and benefiting from it?

3 I can't find the list of WADA cutoff amounts. If anyone can, send it my way, please.