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Showing posts with label Tannis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tannis. Show all posts


Sponsors have moved quickly to distance themselves from Maria Sharapova after the five-time Grand Slam tennis champion admitted failing a drug test.
Nike has suspended its relationship, while Tag Heuer has cut its ties.
Nike said it was "saddened and surprised" at her admission that she tested positive for a banned substance at the Australian Open in January.
Ms Sharapova said she had been taking meldonium since 2006, on the advice of her family doctor.
She is one of the highest paid female athletes with earnings of over $30m last year from winnings and endorsements.
In addition to the moves from Nike and Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer, German carmaker Porsche said it was "postponing planned activities" with Ms Sharapova until the situation became clearer.
Nigel Currie, an independent sports consultant, said brands would not have responded so quickly five years ago, but they now have to react faster in the modern, social media environment.
"They are paranoid about their image, and the slightest risk to their image, they run to the hills."
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Nike 'monitoring situation'
Maria Sharapova's relationship with Nike dates back to when she was 11 years old.
Nike said: "We have decided to suspend our relationship with Maria while the investigation continues.
"We will continue to monitor the situation."
In 2010, the 28-year-old Russian tennis player signed a new eight-year contract with the US sportswear giant worth $70m (£49m) as well as a cut on sales of her own branded clothes.

Tag Heuer was in talks to extend its deal with Ms Sharapova, which ran out at the end of last year.
But the Swiss watchmaker said those talks had now been suspended and the company had decided not to renew the contract.
In 2014, Porsche named her as its first female ambassador and she signed a three-year deal with the car company.
That contract is due to end at the end of this year.
In a statement, the carmaker said: "We are saddened by the recent news announced by Maria Sharapova. Until further details are released and we can analyse the situation, we have chosen to postpone planned activities."
Ms Sharapova is also the face of Avon perfume, Luck, and the water company Evian. They have yet to comment on the matter.
Sponsors 'burned'
Paul Swangaurd, from the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, said Nike's decision reflected a "new era" for the way sponsors deal with these issues.
Nike is taking a "very proactive approach", which resulted from "them being burned by a lot of athletes over the years, and growing impatient with putting so much investment behind athletes that potentially comes back to bite them in the court of public opinion".
Last month, Nike dropped Manny Pacquiao after the boxer said homosexual people were "worse than animals".
The company also severed ties with cyclist and drugs cheat Lance Armstrong as well as athlete Oscar Pistorius, who killed his girlfriend.

Failed test
Listen: 'I would hate to see this ruin her career' - former coach Tarango
Ms Sharapova tested positive for meldonium, a substance she said she had been taking since 2006 for health issues.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said she would be provisionally suspended from 12 March.
Ms Sharapova said: "I did fail the test and take full responsibility for it."
She said she had taken meldonium after being given it by her family doctor and had known the drug by the name mildronate.
"A few days ago, after I received a letter from the ITF, I found out it also has another name of meldonium, which I did not know," she said.

It is meant for angina patients but athletes like it because it helps their endurance and ability to recover from intensive exercise.
It is on the banned list now because Wada started seeing it in lots of samples and found it does have performance-enhancing properties.
It was on Wada's 'watchlist' for over a year and added to the banned list on 1 January.
Made in Latvia, it is widely available - without prescription and at low cost - in many east European countries, but it is not licensed in most western countries, including the United States.
It is thought that hundreds of athletes have been using it and there are a lot more cases in the pipeline

Source: BBC WORLD NEWS

Former world number one Maria Sharapova has revealed she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open.
The Russian, 28, tested positive for meldonium, a substance she has been taking since 2006 for health issues.
Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion, is provisionally suspended from 12 March pending further action.
"I did fail the test and take full responsibility for it," said Sharapova, who won the Wimbledon title as a 17-year-old in 2004.
"For the past 10 years I have been taking a medicine called mildronate by my doctor, my family doctor, and a few days ago after I received the letter from the ITF [International Tennis Federation] I found out it also has another name of meldonium, which I did not know."
Failed test on day of Williams defeat
Sharapova provided the anti-doping sample in question on 26 January, the day she lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter-finals.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) analysed the sample and returned a positive for meldonium, leading to the Russian being charged on 2 March.
"It is very important for you to understand that for 10 years this medicine was not on Wada's banned list and I had been legally taking that medicine for the past 10 years," said Sharapova.
"But on 1 January the rules had changed and meldonium became a prohibited substance, which I had not known."
She added: "I received an email on 22 December from Wada about the changes happening to the banned list and you can see prohibited items, and I didn't click on that link."

'I made a huge mistake'

Sharapova has been the highest-earning female athlete in the world for the past 11 years, according to the Forbes list.
She first reached world number one in August 2005 and is currently seventh in the rankings - but she has played just four tournaments since Wimbledon last July as she struggled with an arm injury.


Sharapova, who turns 29 in April, hopes to be able to return to tennis in the future.
she said-
"I made a huge mistake," 

"I have let my fans down, and let the sport down that I have been playing since the age of four that I love so deeply.
"I know that with this I face consequences and I don't want to end my career this way. I really hope to be given another chance to play this game."
There had been speculation Sharapova was going to announce her retirement and a large media contingent gathered for the Los Angeles news conference, which was streamed live online.
"I know many of you thought that I would be retiring today but if I was ever going to announce my retirement it would not be in a downtown Los Angeles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet,"

Collected From : BBC WORLD NEWS