Wickmayer Suspended for Agassi's Sins

It's amazing how much "no comment" can say. I've made a pet project of the curious case of Yanina Wickmayer, the young tennis player banned for a year from the tour for a doping offense even though she never missed a doping test and never failed one.

Wickmayer is being punished for Andre Agassi's sins. That's how tennis is trying to save face, by crushing a 20-year old budding star who seems to have committed, at worst, a tiny infraction.

I've spent the past few weeks calling and emailing the doping agencies and governing bodies involved. You name the initials, VDT, WADA, WTA, ITF.

Most of them are B.S. In the end, this isn't even about Wickmayer anymore. It's about doping tests and steroids in sports in general. We need watchers to keep an eye on the cheating athletes.

But who is watching the watchers?

Here's what Koen Umans, spokesman for the Flemish anti-doping council (VDT) in Belgium that banned Wickmayer, wrote in an email response to a request for details of her case and a copy of the 20-page report on it:

"As for reason the procedure is not yet finalized at all (appeals are introduced at different levels), it shouldn't be correct to comment on the factuals as a spokesman of the court involved."

A spokesperson for the World Anti-Doping Agency said, "WADA must refrain from commenting on pending cases in order to protect the integrity of this review."

Integrity. Interesting. The thing is, agencies have already commented. VDT banned Wickmayer and said the punishment was just. Those are such strong comments that a young woman who just had her breakthrough, reaching the U.S. Open semis, had to pack up and leave a tournament. Imagine the humiliation.

Her agents had been close to lining up endorsements, too.

Those talks are on hold now.

Why didn't she inform the doping-testers where she would be, as rules require? That sounds bad.

She has an answer. She blames the Flemish anti-doping agency, and now, no comment from the agency.

We've heard so many ridiculous excuses for failed tests that no one believes athletes anymore. At the Turin Olympics, members of the Austrian ski team fled the country in fear of WADA testers and the law.

One official was thrown into an insane asylum. How great watching cheats running.

Wickmayer's name was smeared, her career seriously damaged and her reputation assaulted. And now the agencies won't explain? I've always been a fan of WADA. But Wickmayer's story passes the smell test. And WADA's and Flemish agency's silence casts the suspicion on them.

I'm starting to feel bad for the guy in the insane asylum.

Wickmayer's name was smeared, her career seriously damaged and her reputation assaulted. And now the agencies won't explain?

Look, if an agency is going to serve as judge and jury, then it has to be accountable for its paper trail. Open. Transparent.

"All the letters that I had to sign for upon receipt," Wickmayer said, "were sent back to the Flemish Anti-Doping Agency, meaning that they did know that I had never received them."

This is Wickmayer's case. She didn't report her whereabouts three times in 18 months.

Under WADA rules, the top 50 players have to tell testers where they'll be for an hour each day. Wickmayer wasn't in the top 50 yet, but countries can toughen-up those standards. The Flemish agency decided the top 50 wasn't enough.

So Wickmayer, from Belgium, had to account for her whereabouts. But someone needed to tell Wickmayer.

Here's her claim: She never reported her whereabouts because she didn't know she was supposed to. The Flemish agency sent her a letter in November or December of 2008 to inform her of her requirements, but she was training in Switzerland. The letter was sent via certified mail, meaning it wasn't delivered because no one was there to sign for it.

So it went back to VDT.

In February of 2009, she said, other players mentioned the whereabouts rule to her, so she wrote to the VDT to ask about it.

"I received an email back, which included a login and did not include any information about the one failed update I had already missed, without knowing that this system even exists ..." she said.

Strike one.

The password the agency gave her never worked, she said. And after coming back from the U.S. seven weeks later, she called officials, who said they had to reset her password. What they didn't tell her: strike two.

For strike three, she misunderstood the form online and filled it in wrong.

So she has some blame here. For one, why did she wait seven weeks to mention that her password wasn't working?

One official said that when an athlete gives an address to a sports federation, that athlete is responsible for finding a way to receive mail sent to that address.

But when the agency got the letter back, couldn't it have called Wickmayer? Sent an email? Called an agent?

Umans said there would be a press conference in Brussels this week, and I asked if it would include details on how Wickmayer was informed.

Also, where can I get the 20-page report?

"We won't comment on particular cases," Umans wrote back. And, "We are not allowed and will not publish the verdict. I repeat it has been handed only to the parties involved."

Here's a timeline: A prosecutor in the case suggested that Wickmayer get a stern warning. Then Agassi humiliated tennis by admitting he lied his way out of a failed crystal meth test. Then Wickmayer was banned for a year.

Everything she says would be so easy to check. The Flemish agency must know whether its letters were signed for. Records could show whether officials called Wickmayer or sent emails.

One of Wickmayer's people told me the report says she's not suspected of doping or hiding from tests, but instead of technical errors.

Usually, it's the people with something to hide who say "No comment."

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com