Swimming: China's Sun says public opinion 'distorting' facts of drug test

China's Olympic and world champion swimmer Sun Yang has said public opinion has been "distorting" the facts surrounding his controversial drug test in Shanghai last year and made his training and life intolerable.

The 27-year-old faces a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing over anti-doping violations involving a test at his residence compound last September.

Documents leaked to the media revealed Sun questioned the credentials of the testers before members of his entourage smashed the vials containing his blood samples with a hammer.

Sun, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, said on social media that his actions during the botched test were all carried out under the guidance of his team, medical personnel and leaders of the provincial anti-doping centre.

"However, public opinion has been distorting the facts to varying degrees," Sun said on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

"My training and life have been greatly troubled, far beyond the threshold of tolerance."

Sun, who won the 200 and 400 metres freestyle titles at Gwangju, bringing his world championships haul to 11, said he had been tested hundreds of times according to "strict" anti-doping rules and always cooperated with officials.

He added that he was unable to go public with the truth but said: "Fortunately, the surveillance cameras have recorded everything, otherwise I won't be able to defend myself against irresponsible accusations."

Sun was cleared of wrongdoing by a doping panel convened by swimming's global governing body FINA but the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed to CAS.

CAS said last week it would hold the case in public in a break from usual procedure.

Sun served a three-month doping suspension in 2014 for taking the stimulant trimetazidine, which he said he took to treat a heart condition.

A second doping violation would inevitably bring a harsher sanction and could rule him out of next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

He competed at the world championships in South Korea under the shadow of the WADA appeal and three rivals snubbed him after races, by either refusing to shake his hand or join him on the podium.

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Swimming: Former world champion Magnini handed 4-year ban

ROME - Retired two times swimming world champion Filippo Magnini was handed a four-year ban by Italy's anti-doping agency on Tuesday along with ex-relay team mate Michele Santucci.

The agency, NADO Italia, announced the penalty in a statement.

Magnini, 36, won 100 meter freestyle golds at the 2005 and 2007 world championships as well as a 4x200 freestyle relay bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He retired last year.

The anti-doping prosecutor had sought an eight-year term for actual or attempted doping in a case linked to nutritionist Guido Porcellini, who was given a 30-year ban in July for anti-doping violations.

Magnini, who has not tested positive and had been a critic of doping, denied the charges and said he would appeal.

"I haven't done anything, this sentence is ridiculous," the Gazzetta dello Sport quoted him as saying. "It's a trial of intentions and I could never have imagined something like this."

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Phelps urges U.S. lawmakers to push for anti-doping reform

WASHINGTON - Michael Phelps urged U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday to push for a reform of the global anti-doping effort in sport after a career in which the Olympic great said he was never confident he was competing against clean athletes.

Testifying in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Finance, the most decorated Olympian expressed his frustration at the lack of progress in the battle against the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport.

"I don't believe I've stood up at an international competition and the rest of the field has been clean," said Phelps, whose Olympic haul includes 23 gold medals. "I don't think I've ever felt that. I know when I do stand up in the U.S. I know we're all clean because we go through the same thing.

"Throughout my career I have though that some athletes were cheating and in some cases those suspicions were confirmed.

"Given all the testing I and others have been through, I have a hard time understanding this."

  
Phelps was joined at the hearing by Athens Summer Games shot put gold medalist Adam Nelson who waited nine years to receive his medal after Ukraine's Yuri Belonog was stripped of his gold following a failed drugs test.

Nelson delivered an emotional account as he recalled the day he received his gold medal while at a food court in the Atlanta airport from a U.S. Olympic Committee official who was there changing planes.

"The medal came with a side of fries and a free toy. Don't worry about it." Nelson joked. "It was nine years after that moment had passed.

"The color and timing of a medal matter, folks. Silver does not hold the same value and gold loses its shine over time."

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart, who has called for stronger sanctions against Russian athletes after investigations uncovered evidence of state sponsored doping, used the stage to once again blast the International Olympic Committee for refusing to get tough on dopers.

Ignoring calls to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics, the IOC left it up to individual sport governing bodies to determine if Russian athletes should be allowed to compete in last year's Rio Summer Games.

"At least two Olympic Games were corrupted and at the Rio Games this past August scores of Russian athletes were allowed to compete without credible anti-doping measures," said Tygart.

"When the moment came, despite mountains of evidence and vocal opposition from anti-doping leaders and clean athletes from around the world, the IOC chose to welcome the Russian Olympic Committee to Rio."

IOC President Thomas Bach declined an invitation to attend Tuesday's hearing.

The U.S. government provides funding for the World Anti-Doping Agency budget and the House committee may make recommendations on any funding increases they feel are may be needed to improve the current system.

(Editing by Steve Keating and Frank Pingue)

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Sharapova handed Madrid Open wildcard

BARCELONA - Former world number one Maria Sharapova has been invited to play at the Madrid Open in May, which takes place less than two weeks after her 15-month doping ban expires, tournament organizers said on Wednesday.

The five-time grand slam winner has been given a wildcard for the event, which begins on May 5.

It is scheduled to be her second comeback tournament after her suspension for doping, with the Russian set to return to action at the Stuttgart Grand Prix in April.

"Sharapova requested an invitation to play... (She) is one of the best players of the last 15 years and also a past winner of our tournament," said event director Manolo Santana.

"In Madrid she always plays well and I'm sure she will come back to the courts highly motivated and hoping to do well."

Following a positive test for the drug meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open, the Russian was suspended for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) cut the ban by nine months last October, allowing her to return from April 26.

Her case divided opinion in the sport.

The Florida-based Sharapova, who turns 30 on April 19, had called the ITF's original ruling "unfairly harsh" because she had not intentionally violated anti-doping rules.

Meldonium was only added to the World Anti-Doping Agency list of banned substances at the start of 2016 after mounting evidence it boosted blood flow and enhanced performance.

CAS cut Sharapova's suspension but said she "bore some degree of fault" by relying on agent Max Eisenbud to check the banned list for changes and failing to ensure he had done so.

(Reporting by Richard Martin; editing by John Stonestreet and Ken Ferris)

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High-stakes summit eyes anti-doping overhaul

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND -- After a Russian doping scandal plunged the Olympic movement into one of its worst crises, top figures in world sport meet on Saturday in a bid to overhaul global drug testing.

Relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the body it created to promote clean competition, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), hit historic lows ahead of this summer's Rio Games.

Some IOC leaders accused WADA of reacting too slowly to evidence that Russia was running a massive state-sponsored doping programme and questioned the agency's governance.

WADA countered that it has been left dangerously under-resourced.

Saturday's summit in Lausanne, Switzerland is an effort to turn the page and forge "a more robust, more efficient and more independent worldwide anti-doping system," an IOC statement said.

Olympic chief Thomas Bach will huddle behind closed doors with the head of the world athletics governing body (IAAF) Sebastian Coe, FIFA boss Gianni Infantino and WADA president Craig Reedie.

The heads of the Russian, American and Chinese Olympic committees will also be on hand.

Bach will hold a conference call with reporters at 2:30 pm (1230 GMT) to discuss the summit's outcomes, but the prospects for concrete decisions are uncertain.

WHAT DOES THE IOC WANT?

Currently, anti-doping controls are run by individual sports federations, with WADA overseeing global compliance -- essentially trying to ensure that federations follow a broad set of rules.

Bach has said unequivocally that the IOC wants testing to be removed from the federations' hands to do away with a system that is ripe for conflicts of interest.

What that means for WADA's future is not entirely clear.

In October 2015, before the Russia scandal exploded, the IOC floated the idea that global testing could be taken over by an independent body.

It seemed logical to some that a beefed-up WADA could assume responsibility for drug controls across all sports, but months of acrimony and accusations have clouded the situation.

Aside from the Russia doping crisis that saw dozens of its competitors banned from Rio, WADA's integrity took a further hit when hackers seemingly intent on exposing perceived double standards leaked WADA medical records of more than 100 top global athletes.

The hack was carried out by a group calling itself "Fancy Bears", believed to be Russian, and revealed which banned medications major stars were legitimately taking under so-called "therapeutic use exemptions" (TUEs).

WADA's difficulties and its tensions with the IOC fuelled suggestions that a new entity could be created to oversee testing.

Asked about the expectations for Saturday's talks, Bach told AFP that the IOC "will make some constructive proposals", underscoring that Olympic leaders were already looking at overhauling anti-doping measures "well before" the latest crises came to light.

Bach has also backed reforms that would see the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decide on penalties for anyone caught cheating. At present, sanctions are decided by the sports themselves with CAS only hearing appeals.

Bach argues that letting a single court punish dopers in all sports would improve transparency and save money.

- WADA confident -
WADA, established in 1999, is 50 percent funded by the IOC.

But despite simmering tensions with its powerful parent WADA officials have predicted that the agency will remain a strong presence in the intensifying fight for clean sport.

"I do not think that the situation is critical for WADA," its director general Olivier Niggli said last month.

Highlighting the agency's essential role, he stressed it was WADA that commissioned the bombshell report on Russian doping, unveiling perhaps the largest cheating scandal in Olympic history.

That report, led by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, is due to be published in full in the coming weeks.

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Sharapova targets April return after doping ban reduced

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova hailed the reduction of her two-year doping ban on Tuesday as one of the "happiest days" of her life, immediately targeting a return to action in April 2017.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) cut Sharapova's ban to 15 months saying she was not an "intentional doper", after the 29-year-old tested positive for the banned medication meldonium during January's Australian Open -- throwing her glittering, money-spinning career into serious jeopardy.

"I’ve gone from one of the toughest days of my career last March, when I learned about my suspension, to now, one of my happiest days, as I found out I can return to tennis in April," said Sharapova, who has racked up 35 WTA singles titles and more than $36 million in career earnings.

An April return means she would be able to compete at the French Open in May-June next year -- she is a two-time champion at Roland Garros.

Sharapova, whose ferocity on court, business acumen and glamorous looks all combined to make her a marketing juggernaut, was hit with a two-year ban by an independent tribunal appointed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

Reducing the ban, the Lausanne-based CAS "found that Ms Sharapova committed an anti-doping rule violation and that while it was with 'no significant fault', she bore some degree of fault, for which a sanction of 15 months is appropriate".

And in the panel's more detailed, formal decision, it said significantly: "Under no circumstances, therefore, can the player be considered to be an 'intentional doper'."

Sharapova openly admitted she had been taking meldonium, an over-the-counter drug made in Latvia, for 10 years to help treat illnesses, a heart issue and a magnesium deficiency.

She always maintained that it had entirely escaped her attention that the product had been added to the banned substance list published by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on January 1, just before the Australian Open.

"I have taken responsibility from the very beginning for not knowing that the over-the-counter supplement I had been taking for the last 10 years was no longer allowed," Sharapova said in her Facebook post Tuesday.

"But I also learned how much better other (sports) Federations were at notifying their athletes of the rule change, especially in Eastern Europe, where Mildronate (the trade name of meldonium) is commonly taken by millions of people."

Sharapova added: "Now that this process is over, I hope the ITF and other relevant tennis anti-doping authorities will study what these other Federations did, so that no other tennis player will have to go through what I went through."

Steve Simon, CEO of the WTA, said he backed the CAS decision.

"We are pleased that the process is now at completion and can look forward to seeing Maria back on court in 2017," he added.

'Counting the days'

Sharapova, who off the court enjoyed successful ventures such as her "Sugarpova" line of candy, helping her amass a fortune estimated at $200 million, said she was itching to get back on court.

"I’m coming back soon and I can’t wait!" she said.

"In so many ways, I feel like something I love was taken away from me and it will feel really good to have it back.

"Tennis is my passion and I have missed it. I am counting the days until I can return to the court."

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told TASS news agency: "I'm very happy for Maria, although I think that CAS should have fully lifted her suspension for a drug like meldonium."

Sharapova was intially prescribed meldonium a year after winning Wimbledon as a 17-year-old by a Russian doctor in Moscow to boost her immune system.

She burst onto the tennis scene by stealing hearts and that title at Wimbledon in 2004 before going on to clinch the US Open in 2006, the Australian Open in 2008 and the French Open in 2012 and 2014.

The chairman of Sharapova's tennis racquet manufacturer and sponsor, Head, was emphatic in his criticism of rulings on meldonium.

"We are very proud to have stood by Maria for the right reasons throughout these difficult and testing times," said Johan Eliasch.

Alexander Zhukov, president of Russia's Olympic Committee, said that he hopes Sharapova will be able to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, after missing out on the August Rio Games due to her suspension.

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Pacquiao, Mayweather camps at odds over doping penalty

LOS ANGELES - Tension appeared to be rising around the long awaited welterweight world title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, with the fighters' camps reportedly at odds over a proposed doping penalty.

Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that he was "a little puzzled and dismayed" that Mayweather wouldn't agree to the $5 million penalty Pacquiao had proposed should either fighter test positive for a banned drug.

Mayweather Promotions chief executive Leonard Ellerbe, however, told the newspaper that the drug testing protocol for the May 2 fight in Las Vegas had been "rigorously negotiated" by Pacquiao promoters Top Rank.

In comments to ESPN.com, Ellerbe called Koncz an "idiot."

"If this moron didn't convey his fighter's wishes when the negotiation was going on that's their problem," Ellerbe said. "This is a lame-ass attempt to generate publicity."

Drug testing was an issue in attempts to put a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight together in late 2009 and early 2010.

Mayweather wanted random Olympic-style blood and urine testing, but Pacquiao objected to some of the protocols and the deal disintegrated.

Mayweather later accused the Filipino ring icon of using performance-enhancing drugs, a charge which Pacquiao denied.

Pacquiao sued Mayweather over the accusation and the two settled out of court.

Drug-testing differences have been just part of the long and winding road to the May 2 match-up between the two fighters widely considered the best pound-for-pound fighters of their generation.

The bout has required rival telecasters Showtime and HBO to work together to produce a fight considered a lock to break all records for pay-per-view viewers and revenue.

Pacquiao, a two-term Congressman from Sarangani province in the Philippines, is 57-5 with two drawn and 38 knockouts while Mayweather is 47-0 with 26 knockouts.

Last week, the US Anti-Doping Agency said both fighters had agreed to undergo Olympic-style random drug testing prior to the bout.

Mayweather has submitted to USADA testing for all of his bouts since 2010.

Both fighters must provide USADA with their whereabouts and make themselves available for blood and urine tests for drugs including human growth hormone (HGH) and the blood-boosting erythropoietin (EPO).

Pacquiao first suggested the reciprocal fine for a failed drug test as extra insurance that a doping issue wouldn't scupper the fight that fans worldwide have clamored for.

But Ellerbe charged the arrangement was an attempt to "put a $5 million price tag if Manny tested positive."

"It will cost Manny a lot more than some $5 million if he comes up positive," Ellerbe said.

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A-Rod case highlights game's doping battle

CHICAGO - A 211-game ban didn't keep star player Alex Rodriguez from taking the field Monday, but did signal that US baseball may be slowly coming to grips with its doping problem.

That Rodriguez took the field for his injury-delayed season debut just hours after Major League Baseball announced he would be banned through the end of the 2014 season marks the latest in a series of scandals to hit the sport.

But Monday's events may have offered some encouraging signs, including 12 players accepting 50-game suspensions without appealing.

That followed Milwaukee star Ryan Braun's similar acceptance of a 65-game ban after he was linked to the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic, which has been fingered as a source of performance enhancing drugs like testosterone and human growth hormone.

"Despite the challenges this situation has created during a great season on the field, we pursued this matter because it was not only the right thing to do, but the only thing to do," MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said of the investigation into the clinic.

He also praised the efforts of the players' union, which has often been at odds with the league over anti-doping procedures.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who was only too happy to welcome Rodriguez back to his punchless lineup for as long as he could, said the fact that the MLB and players union officials have cooperated in the course of the Biogenesis case was progress.

"People have asked me, is this a good day or a bad day in baseball," Girardi said. "I think it's both. It's another black eye for us that we're trying to clean this game up.

"But I think it's really good, the combination of union and Major League Baseball working together."

Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Michael Weiner said the union agreed that the 12 50-game suspensions handed down were "consistent with the punishments set forth in the Joint Drug Agreement."

But the union will help Rodriguez pursue his appeal, saying Selig didn't act appropriately -- apparently in imposing such a lengthy ban when the game's anti-doping rules call for a 50-game suspension for a first offense and 100 games for a second.

Selig said Rodriguez's ban also included punishment for obstructing the investigation into Biogenesis.

But if Rodriguez proves another big fish that gets away when he takes his case to an arbitrator, it will be an even darker day for baseball.

Less than a month ago, the Baseball Hall of Fame completed a 2013 induction ceremony that featured just three posthumous honorees.

All of the modern-era candidates, many with links to the doping scandals of the past 15 years, had been snubbed by the selection panel.

They include two players whose names have become synonomous with baseball's "steroid era" -- all-time home run king Barry Bonds and star pitcher Roger Clemens.

Mark McGwire, who battled doping allegations as he became the first player to hit 70 homers in a season while with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1998, admitted in 2010 that he had used steroids for almost a decade.

Now the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers, McGwire said Monday he thought players were more resolved now to rid their sport of doping.

"It really doesn't matter what I think, I think it matters what the players think," McGwire said.

"And what I hear every day in the clubhouse, they're just happy it's coming to an end. They're happy that Major League Baseball is taking care of it."

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