SHELLY ANN FRASER TARNISHED BY POOR CHOICES

(Daily Telegraph photo) Shelly Ann Fraser tarnished by a series of poor decsions.

It’s sad that Olympic and World 100 metre champion Shelly Ann Fraser now faces sanctions after the prohibited painkiller Oxycodone was found in her test sample following her performance in the Shanghai Diamond League this past May.
What is even sadder are the circumstances under which the drug ended up in her system in the first place.
For those who dont know the details of this case here is a brief synopsis: Shelly Ann underwent a dental procedure in May. Immediately thereafter she flew to Shanghai to participate in the Diamond League meet there.
The travelling caused her sore gums to become inflamed and she was in a world of pain by the time she arrived in China.
There she was treated by IAAF doctors. They gave her pain medication which didnt have any effect at all on her level of discomfort.
Two hours before she was to race, she goes to her coach and tells him that the pain was too much to bear. He then gives her some medication -Oxycodone – that doctors had prescribed for him.
Following the race in which Fraser finishes down the track in a slow 11.29s she forgets to pass on information that she had been given the pain medication before the race.
Thus, she returns a positive sample.
And I feel for her because she has been an inspiration to many and has been doing a great job as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador but here is where I have to acknowledge that a series of bad decisions may have tarnished her reputation forever.
1) The fact that she would have undergone the dental procedure so close to the meet, why not sit the meet out and give herself a chance to recover sufficiently so that she would have been able to participate without the pain?

In the meantime she could have obtained a Therapuetic Use Exemption (TUE) that would have allowed her to take the most effective of painkillers without having to worry about turning up a positive on any random test that she may have had to take during that period.
Having gone to the meet and in pain, why didnt she just withdraw? Or, seeing that the painkillers the doctors had given her, were not doing an adequate job, seek a TUE there and got some real potent medication that would have alleviated the discomfort.
The worst of those choices, however, was to accept the medication offered by her coach Stephen Francis.
Look, he certainly went well, but being a non-medical officer administering a drug to a world class athlete, was as poor a decision as he ever could make.
A hearing comes up soon and the MVP club will make their case and we all hope that there will be room for empathy and common sense when the JAAA disciplinary panel sits down to hear the case.
And in the event that she receives only a reprimand, I also hope that WADA will accept any penalty handed down by the JAAAA and not take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
That way, Shelly Ann would not pay too high a price for the series of bad decisions that has led her to this situation.
The only trouble is, she may have already paid the ultimate price – her reputation.