Friday, February 6, 2009

Fed & Williamses Not Joining The Fight Against Naggy Girlfriend (WADA)

From ESPN.com:
Depending on which tennis player you ask, the new drug-testing regime for top international athletes is either too intrusive or a necessary evil.

The main issue of the system, which became effective in tennis on Jan. 1 after being adopted by the International Tennis Federation at the Beijing Olympics, is a provision requiring players to say where they are going to be for an hour each day, every day.

<snip>

A number of cyclists, soccer players and volleyballers are pursuing legal action in Belgium, calling the code an invasion of their privacy. Top-ranked tennis player Rafael Nadal has said he plans to join in. Spanish journalists quoted him as calling the system a "disgrace" and "intolerable," saying many players believe they are being treated like criminals.

But second-ranked Roger Federer and Serena and Venus Williams say that while they may not like it, it's critical to tennis' integrity to prove that its athletes are clean.

"It's a tough system, no doubt," Federer said Saturday, a day before he will play Nadal in the Australian Open final. A win would pull him even with Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. "It's a significant change to what we were used to before, so I think it takes some getting used to it."

<snip>

He said doping seemed to have become so sophisticated that anything less stringent would leave cracks for offenders to slip through.

"I feel like this is how you're going to catch them, right?" Federer said. "You're not going to catch them ringing them up and saying, 'Look, I would like to test you maybe in two days.' The guy's cheating and they're smart, right?

"It's an hour a day. I know it's a pain, but I would like it to be a clean sport, and that's why I'm OK with it."

I cannot believe anyone will agree to such an invasion of privacy.

2 comments:

  1. They're all so chicken!! Stand up for yourself, for crying out loud.

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  2. [...] Girlfriend (WADA) Too Boy, I don’t know what happened, but a week or two ago I posted an article from ESPN about Fed and the Williamses saying that they’re not against the the crazy rule WADA has enforced to athletes. I looked at [...]

    ReplyDelete