those years when Nadal was viewed with suspicion | Relief

It’s better to stop training without a shirt, it’s better to cover up. And it’s better to stop talking so openly, it’s better not to say that politicians should undergo an anti-doping test. ANDDuring his very extensive career Rafael Nadal had to overcome many obstaclessome of which seemed impossible, and others that foreshadowed the end, without calling. But There was someone who was always there, who always got in his way to make him uncomfortable.make him defensive and even annoying: doping allegationsstatements that what he does with a racket in his hands is abnormal are impossible without prohibited aids.

– Rafa, why don’t you use drugs?

As December 2006 slipped away, Nadal was 20 years old and embarking on a memorable new season, highlighted by a second Roland Garros title and a Wimbledon final. The number two in the world easily understood the meaning of the question in this empty room. from Sa Punta, a family restaurant in Porto Cristo, one of the many magical places on the island of Mallorca. He wasn’t asked for a misdemeanor, he was asked about the opposite, about something deeper, about his philosophy on doping.

– Why don’t you use drugs?

– Because I don’t understand sports that well. Sport is a competition that gives you the best of what you have, not what you don’t have.

Carefully trained in argument and heated debate at countless family dinners, Nadal knew how to respond despite his youth, but he lost his cool more than once that day and in the years that followed. in the face of persistent questions and suspicions. Because they have always been like this: questions and suspicions, nothing firm: Nadal has never tested positive for doping tests.

In that frank conversation in Porto Cristo Nadal made it clear that he was tired of the insinuations around him”Port Operation“which started out promising a lot and ended up delivering far less as cyclists complained that they were the only ones with sanctioned athletes.

Eufemiano Fuentes, a doctor from the Canary Islands who oversaw the supply of doping to the participating athletes, In private conversations, he hinted that football and tennis players were also involved.and even said this in full in an interview with a French newspaper Le Monde.

Just the mention of the topic made Nadal feel uneasy.. Many. When asked about sources and Le MondeThe Spaniard reacted as he usually does when he prefers not to talk about something: he denied his knowledge.

– No, I didn’t hear anything, I didn’t hear anything.

– Nothing?

– No.

– Nothing?

– No.

And then he let go. Of course I heard something, I heard everything.

“The truth is that I don’t really care about all these things, and “It has already been proven that everything that appears in this newspaper is hardly credible.”

By “this newspaper” Nadal meant what was published Le Journal du Dimanche in May 2006. A French newspaper linked the Mallorcan to doping, providing nothing more than anonymous comments from other players.

This too helped the Nadals convince themselves that France doesn’t love theman idea with notes of truth from the very beginning. but it was buried forever in Nadal’s remarkable 2022 Roland Garros quarter-final victory over Novak Djokovic.

Puppets and a trial won by a French minister

The Nadals had reason to be upset with France, although it is unfair to put the entire country and its citizens in one bag. It is enough to recall two more stories.

“These guignols are stupid, yeah“King Juan Carlos told Nadal at a reception celebrating his victory over Argentina in the 2011 Davis Cup final. He was referring to the Canal+ dolls, which depicted a muscular Nadal holding a giant syringe.

Another story is related to Roselyne BachelotFrench Minister of Sports for three years. He had the distinction of boxing the tricolor team and even making players cry during a mid-shot at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but also for losing the challenge to Nadal.

This was in March 2016, almost ten years after that conversation in Porto Cristo. Bachelot commented on Nadal’s seven-month absence due to injury between 2012 and 2013 with a surprising phrase, given his political experience, having headed ministries for almost a decade: “We more or less know that Rafael Nadal’s famous injury, which kept him out of competition for seven months, is almost certainly related to the positive test.“.

Nadal sued Bachelot for libel and sought $100,000 in damages. French justice ruled in favor, but only for $10,000.which the Spaniard donated to social work in France.

“The only thing I regret is that it was not possible to reach more organizations that serve people with specific needs,” said Nadal, who in those months dealt with another doping front: the exposed “Fancy Bears” RTI..

TUEs are “therapeutic use exemptions,” substances whose use is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Code but which They can be consumed if it is proven that a doctor prescribed them for health reasons. athlete.

“Unusual Bears” is a group of Russian hackers who penetrated the servers of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and They found two TUEs granted to Nadal, one in 2009 and another in 2012, both for steroids to reduce inflammation in his damaged knees.who years later was treated with enriched plasma by Dr. Miquel Sanchez in Vitoria.

RTIs spark the imagination of anyone who encounters stories related to them, and There is a surprising prevalence of asthmatics in some sports.a condition that allows them to consume substances that would otherwise be prohibited.

Anti-doping control over politicians

In those early years of WADA’s feverish anti-doping campaign led by Canadian Richard Pound, Spain was targeted (with good reason). AND If Spain were in the crosshairs, then Nadal would be too.

Pound, a former Olympic swimmer and astute member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), had undeniable suspicions about what was happening in Spanish sports and issued countless warnings and ridicule to the country’s authorities. If the fight against doping is not of interest to Spain, then perhaps the Olympic site should not be given to Madrid, he said.

Madrid has never hosted the Games and Nadal never stopped complaining about what he considered to be poor implementation of the system. anti-doping control.

“When you sign the paper, they follow you until you go to the bathroom, they look at you. You’re going to take a shower and you’re going to have to shower with the curtain open. Incredible, things from the court. (It happens) on the highway, but also at my home. As soon as you sign, they control you, but if you change, I don’t know…”

“They treat us like criminalsand that’s something to keep in mind because I don’t see politicians taking drug tests or anything like that. Why athletes?”

Subjecting politicians to anti-doping policies is one of those typical ideas that gets thrown into the air in a heated debate between friends or at a family dinner (Nadal?), although No one expected this to come from the lips of one of the most famous athletes in the world.. After all, he and his family are also accustomed to dealing with politicians in Spain, and at the highest level.

But the reflection was timely: in December 2006, a story circulated about the Italian satirical program “Le Hiene” (The Hyenas), which exercised coercive control over about 50 parliamentarians. In several of them he found traces of cannabis and even cocaine.

Nadal opened his eyes in amazement when he heard about the Italian experience. Perhaps he felt vindicated. “Well, maybe there should be more. Because It cannot be that we are treated like criminals, it seems wrong to me.. “I don’t know how we as athletes allow this to happen.”

“I’m ready to do something for everything we’ve been through. Because they treat us like criminals. I think it’s a shame that (Argentine Guillermo) Cañas went to the US Open and (in 2005) they didn’t miss him.. Because? Because he killed someone, raped someone? He may have taken aspirin that he didn’t know he shouldn’t take. And what is it then?

That same splash Nadalyan was warned when Frenchman Richard Gasquet tests positive for cocaine. According to him, for kissing a model at a party in Miami. Nadal defended him with passion, almost fury.. For those who don’t want him, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, this is a good reason to mark him as a suspect.

Famous photo of Australia from 2008.

Sometimes Nadal himself contributed to these suspicions, as in January 2008. His photo during one of the training sessions before the Australian Open spread all over the world.: If the Incredible Hulk played tennis, anyone would say that in those days he was reincarnated as a Mallorcan. It just had to be green.

The photographs are moments, not a real film, but the truth is that the image shocked many and scared the “Nadal clan”, realizing those boundless muscles, that gigantic back and that fierce look on the stony face moments before he hit backhand would excite the minds of those who have always argued that the Spaniard’s physique is abnormalthere was external help for this.

Paul Krok, an Australian, was a photographer for the French agency AFP at the time and the author of this striking image. He remembered this moment well. “It was one of those really hot days at the Australian Open. Rafa was training on one of the back courts without a shirt. I took this and other images and that’s it.“.

In the coming years, Nadal will again be very careful about training without a shirt.. In one of his reflections from those years, the left-hander explained why he believed that there was little doping in tennis.

“There are very few positive cases. And it should be noted that this is not because we did not pass control. We go through the same thing as most, or more. I don’t think doping in tennis makes sense.. This makes sense in sports that depend solely on holding out longer or resisting longer. “There are a lot of things in tennis, both technical and psychological.”

Swedish Mats WilanderThe former world number one sought a more philosophical explanation when talking about doping and why it exists.

“The world is full of drug addicts. Some are addicted to adrenaline, some are addicted to endorphins, some are addicted to drugs, some are addicted to alcohol, some are addicted to speed.. Some are addicted to gambling. That’s right, this place is full of drug addicts, “junkies” trying to get to the top. There is not a single tennis player who does not strive for this feeling of “high”. I can assure you of this one hundred percent. And this “high” comes not from drugs, but from adrenaline, endorphins and happiness. Everyone, and most likely 90 percent of the population, is interested in something in life. Anything. Sometimes it’s legal, sometimes it’s illegal. “Ups” and “downs”—that’s what life is all about.”