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Friday, November 2, 2007

Crushed

Wow. Just wow. What a fitting news for the Halloween!

Last night, before sleeping, I have read about the press conference Martina Hingis and her team is planning out. I thought, oh well, she is going to retire after those injuries since taking the 2007 Toray Pan Pacific title.

This morning, the most unexpected news flashed before me. Martina Hingis retires after revealing a positive test for cocaine at Wimbledon. WTF? Martina Hingis and cocaine in one line seem impossible.

I have been a fan of Martina more than a decade ago and this kind of news really surprises me. She has been an Ambassador of Goodwill for couples of year already. And reading this article makes me wonder if it is true?

This was the second year of her comeback, sophomore year (sophomore slump, maybe). After winning the 2007 PPO, everything went against her, career-wise. She struggled with injuries causing her to miss the French Open but tried to force her way to enter The Championships. The Championships, the place where they said she took cocaine,

Hingis tested positive June 29, the day she was upset in straight sets by Laura Granville of the United States in the third round at Wimbledon. That was her first tournament after missing 1 1/2 months with hip and back injuries. "I just didn't want to miss Wimbledon," Hingis said at the time. "Probably at the end of the day, it wasn't, like, the smartest thing."

Reading through her transcript, she sounded crushed, helpless and unwilling to fight.

I am frustrated and angry. I believe that I am absolutely, 100 percent innocent. The fact is that it is more and more difficult for me, physically, to keep playing at the top of the game. And frankly, accusations such as these don't exactly provide me with motivation to even make another attempt to do so. I attempted a comeback after a three-year break and succeeded in winning three tournaments, bringing my ranking to six in the world. But in the meantime, I'm now 27 years old, and realistically too old to play top class tennis.

I must admit, I still don’t believe Hingis could do this thing. She is aware of the consequences of being a top and well-liked player and role model. It just confuses me that she looked defeated with her way of handling this accusation. She should speak up. Perhaps, she really is angry and I can’t blame her.

Early this year, Martina has been very vocal about the doping schedule conducted by this committee. If I remember it correctly, it was Maria Sharapova who first voiced out how inconvenient this doping team arranged their ‘random’ schedule that they have to respect the players’ privacy, hours of rest and practice session. Martina stressed out that time its okay to take a urine sample as long as its not 4 am. Coincidence? Hmm. Just thinking.

But some may ask, why retire? To those who don’t follow her career, she has been injured (hips) this season and has been consistently losing to unknown players, a much different scenario during her 1st year of comeback. Can I add the effect of her break-up with Radek here? It wasn’t her best year. It is even the worst year of career, imo. And now, what a way to end that glorious career!


delicate

Martina Hingis

a fickle flower
snipped by traditional wind;
now, stones to kiss her

The timing. Yes, what a great timing though. Announcing her retirement and opening this “scandal” may add doubt to haters, fans, her fellow players as well as the sports world. Ironically, her story last year was a headliner and her story now is rippling through out the world. Tsk tsk.

In cases like this, the person involved is always the loser. In case the doping committee will clear her name, the fact that she was suspected to be a drug-user, will always haunt her and will be brought up continuously.

Whether she is innocent or not, only Martina Hingis knows.

/totomai
11/02/07

19 comments:

  1. None of these surprises me. So sad though. Just recently, another olympic gold medalist had to give up her medals, and retired, the same time when she admitted using steroids during the tournament. Seems like you're really "crushed" about Martina Hingis. I'm a great fan of the Steelers football team, a great fan of Hynes Ward, Troy Polamalu. Hope they don't do anything stupid, 'cause it'll sure break my heart.

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  2. @karis, yes a bit. i dont know, its seems impossible. im still trying to connect how can she possibly take drugs knowing her status. oh, well, i may never know...

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  3. Totomai,

    Talk about sports and I'm lost. My lame body as a kid and my over protective parents didn't allowed me any sports growing up. I was a home body doing indoors activities ~ drawing and perhaps early on I was already writing in my head.

    Early morning long walks when I was still in the Philipines is the closest to sports I do.

    But I understand your sentiments expressed here in honor(still) of your idol. It is disappointing to read something negative about the person we admire(true or not), "crushed" is an apt word for the title ~ she is, and you are.

    But we should admire people not only for their accomplishments ~ flaws included. A single mistake she did should not erase all the many achievements she had, which is the reason for your admiration in the first place.

    That's the danger sometimes for over achievers, fans put them to pedestal, detractors just wait for a single mistake and they are done.
    In the end, it's really upto our idols how they would still manage.

    I admire people more when they are able to rise from the situations that crush them. Its a test of spirit, We see many people who went through the same problem and yet manage to rise and become better people rising to higher levels - icons. Madonna is. But there are some who were crushed permanently, losers. Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and more are.(I don't know sports so the example I'm giving are only those known to most people).

    I think this crisis to your idol's life would be a deciding point for you ~ reading from your story, I can sense that she had shown strong-willed spirit rising to the top. Strong-willed, if she is, she can rise from here. It is only then that you will know if she trully is deserving to be placed on a pedestal.

    I wish you well.

    ~ Jeques

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  4. @Jeques. thanks for sharing. i believe i have only followed one sports personality and thats martina hingis.

    i hope she will eventually clear her name :-)

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  5. I started watching tennis because of her. I am as crushed as you are, 22mai. I think she’s still devastated by the news, though. Hopefully, after some time, she’ll clear her name and come back (again) for us, fans.

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  6. @mykel, i guess this is one of the news i have never imagined. watching the video of her press conference, her voice cracking she seem so crushed too.

    it was her smiles (and armpits) that got me hooked to tennis.

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  7. maybe it's time for her to give her body time to recover from the various injuries she collected during her stint and time to step out of the limight (and enjoy life as it should be).

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  8. @manong calbo, she looked fine last year but has been plagued by injuries this year. perhaps, she just have to call it quits indeed. sad.

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  9. Yuck! Hahaha.

    Nagulat din ako nung narinig ko na durugista si Martina.Maybe the pain was just too much to bear for her.

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  10. You'd be amazed how many athlethes actually get away with drug tests. Maybe they didn't have the fear of getting busted. In the case of Marion Jones, the so-called "Fastest Woman on Earth", one might ask, why would she take steroids when she knew it's illegal, and it would sure damage her name. According to her, she never fail any of the drug tests. Same Lance(cyclist), and Bonds(baseball) they all did it to build muscles and make them extra strong. But here, in Martina's case, it's cocaine. I would never understand why would she do that. It seems too personal. I don't particularly follow tennis tournament, but I play sometimes for fun. Hey Steelers won last night!!!!! Don't give up on her though. She deserves a second chance, everyone does.

    Jeques, you're right. I think each and every one of us has those moments when it seems like it's so hard to rise above them. Loyalty and support from family and friends is crucial. I hope Hingis finds her way back and I hope people don't give up on her. People love come back stories :)

    Tomai, don't lose heart.

    Sino to gali ang sa pic? :) Yudeeeeeee!!!

    Stoyahe lang ko a. :)

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  11. @benj, maybe the drugs came from me lol

    @karis, i dont think martina will come back again even if her name will be cleared. tigulang na sya and with those injuries i think its better for her to quit. :-(

    PS

    and sa pic, officemate ko to sya. may bf na to sya ya, daw utod ko na lang na. ehehe

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  12. Utod utod lang guro :) hehehehehe. pati mai a.

    Armpits?!!!! :) My high school once said it's actually the sexiest part of the human body, can be the nastiest though. :)

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  13. I still can't believe it up to now. I hope she doesn't stay away from tennis even if she won't be playing professionally anymore. :(

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  14. @karis, yes, i think its one of the sexiest body parts hehe

    @alvin, oo nga e. pano kaya nangyari yun

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  15. It is sad to hear of someone so young who could be on top of her game despite her age. She may have had numerous injuries but she could of still fought harder and well this is unfortunate.

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  16. yr poem and photo are beautiful and reflect well yr written thoughts... recently watched a story on russia and how they fed their female athletes steroids and other assorted pills to make their performance match their desires for gold medals... and the consequences were sad... a few females did not know they were being fed pills that would change their bodies, minds and lives..

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  17. There are also such things as false positive tests for drugs. Even eating a poppy seed biscuit can result in a positive result for opiates. I would rather give admired athletes the benefit of the doubt until it is confirmed by further tests.

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  18. I'm with Granny. My brother-in-law is a captain for American Airlines and he NEVER eats poppyseed muffins or uses poppyseed salad dressing.

    Love your haiku!

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  19. Anything popular is open to abuse, and as such, certain aspects become 'forbidden'. If only it were as cut and dried as 'amateur' and 'professional' used to be.

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any thoughts to distill?

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