British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

christ · Futures level

Tara Moore

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

It was only the 'majority' of CAS Panel who found in favour of the ITIA and against Tara

I think the multi-layered approach of ITIA, Independent Tribunal, CAS ... is confusing and has led to accusations of infighting between different levels (aka Halep)

But I don't really agree with the last bit, christ - it's constantly amazing what defences many people come up with - sort of the 'dog ate my homework' style - people will try anything if trapped in a corner (nothing to do with Tara specifically)

By the way, this is the CAS official announcement - not sure it's been put up here:

www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_10298.pdf

Grachka · County player

The difficulty I have with this story is that, if it were anyone else in Tara's situation and back story, we'd likely all back up a heavy sanction to discourage doping and apply scrutiny. Many non-Brits who have been suspended have been more heavily criticised than when it's a Brit.

With Tara, there's a natural default (when discussed in the media, forums etc.) towards that she's been hard done by, and that there's somehow been a mistake or non-deliberate reason. While I understand that mindset, I don't think we can rely on all British athletes being fair and law-abiding in all cases.

Definitely a huge unfairness in the amount of time taken to bring this case to conclusion, however, and a huge disparity versus what happens when it affects the top of the game.

indiana · Tennis legend

Tbf, while yes I do see the "but she's British" point and no-one here has declared her guilty, there have been posts ranging from at ieast questioning to downright scepticism in pretty ranging discussions both here and in the 'Doping Again!' thread.

But yes, an almost universal feeling that it is very wrong how the process is so much easier for the haves compared to the have nots.

9vicman · Futures qualifying

I think having constant differences of opinion between tribunals and CAS/TAS isn't helpful regarding the integrity of the anti-doping programme.a I do wonder sometimes if CAS/TAS need to be seen to overturn decisions to justify their existence but I have no scientific data to back this statement.

And yes, any player with resources is in a better position to explore every avenue to find an explanation for an adverse finding. But it doesn't seem that this was the situation in Tara's case. She had high levels of nandralone that have never been seen to occur in contaminated meat. That said I have huge empathy for her situation as it affects her livelihood and well-being.

indiana · Tennis legend

Tbf what is the point of different stages of an appeals process and ultimately CAS if they were virtually always coming to the same conclusions? That would be viewed as - they just rubber-stamp rather than properly look into.

Where I do agree is that should clearly be much more the exception that they come to a significantly different finding, and I have no ideas of the numbers. Are there "constant differences"?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

If Tara says she has a 'large appetite' and ate meat every day, often several times a day, and several portions, you do wonder if the 'normal' amounts of drug a person would have from eating contaminated meat shouldn't apply to her

(On a separate point, that's a blinkin' lot of meat to eat, for anyone)

As per Indepenent Tribunal :

49. TM's own Witness Statement is at B/55-66. She gave evidence orally and was crossexamined. She demonstrated, and we accept, that she arrived in Bogotá on 30 March 2022, and she says that she has a large appetite. She attended the Tournament to play in the Women's Doubles with her wife, Emina Bektas. They were together for most of the time. She was able to establish, by reference to the bill, that she and Ms Bektas ate at the ------------- restaurant on 31 March.
There she ate considerable quantities of meat - see her Witness Statement at B/56-57. On 1 April, she ate more meat with Ms Bektas at the restaurant in the country club where the Tournament was taking place. One of the dishes was fried pork, whereas the previous evening she had been eating beef.

50. On 2 April, she and others ate dinner at a restaurant which was part of the -------- and the following days (3 and 4 April) she lunched at the country club, the Tournament venue and on both occasions ate pasta with Bolognese sauce (which may be assumed to have contained minced beef). She probably had at least one further helping, and later on 4 April dined at the ----------- Again, she ate a meal which contained at least some meat. She ate more meat on 5 April 2022 for breakfast and then had lunch (again with Bolognese sauce) at the country club restaurant on 5 April before returning to the for dinner that same evening. She ate yet more meat that evening and again the following day (6 April 2022) which was the day on which she later provided the Sample which on analysis was found to contain Boldenone and Nandrolone.

indiana · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
If Tara says she has a 'large appetite' and ate meat every day, often several times a day, and several portions, you do wonder if the 'normal' amounts of drug a person would have from eating contaminated meat shouldn't apply to her

(On a separate point, that's a blinkin' lot of meat to eat, for anyone)

As per Indepenent Tribunal :

49. TM's own Witness Statement is at B/55-66. She gave evidence orally and was crossexamined. She demonstrated, and we accept, that she arrived in Bogotá on 30 March 2022, and she says that she has a large appetite. She attended the Tournament to play in the Women's Doubles with her wife, Emina Bektas. They were together for most of the time. She was able to establish, by reference to the bill, that she and Ms Bektas ate at the ------------- restaurant on 31 March.
There she ate considerable quantities of meat - see her Witness Statement at B/56-57. On 1 April, she ate more meat with Ms Bektas at the restaurant in the country club where the Tournament was taking place. One of the dishes was fried pork, whereas the previous evening she had been eating beef.

50. On 2 April, she and others ate dinner at a restaurant which was part of the -------- and the following days (3 and 4 April) she lunched at the country club, the Tournament venue and on both occasions ate pasta with Bolognese sauce (which may be assumed to have contained minced beef). She probably had at least one further helping, and later on 4 April dined at the ----------- Again, she ate a meal which contained at least some meat. She ate more meat on 5 April 2022 for breakfast and then had lunch (again with Bolognese sauce) at the country club restaurant on 5 April before returning to the for dinner that same evening. She ate yet more meat that evening and again the following day (6 April 2022) which was the day on which she later provided the Sample which on analysis was found to contain Boldenone and Nandrolone.

Surely if CAS largely accepted this account of Tara's meat eating ( as opposed to taking it on board and rolling their eyes and not really accepting it ) then it's effect on the possible drug level would be taken into account in the round, no? Though Nandrolone sort of starts at an expected zero from meat.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

You'd hope so, yes

The Independent Tribunal had also raised their concerns about scientific studies purporting to establish what the 'admittable, normal' amount should be anyway

as per para 64:

That demonstrates the dangers of drawing too firm of conclusions from these earlier
scientific studies. One can look at a particular study and say that the concentration found
in another later case is many more times higher than any that has been previously
identified. But that does not mean that the later finding cannot be a genuine case of meat
contamination indeed, as we observed immediately above, the most recent (Montreal)
study has already revealed concentrations more than seven times higher than any
previously identified.

dodrade · Futures qualifying

Tara's always been a big girl so I could well believe she has a large appetite, whether it's large enough to account for the nandrolone levels who knows?

-- Edited by dodrade on Monday 21st of July 2025 12:39:37 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

dodrade wrote:
Tara's always been a big girl so I could well believe she has a large appetite, whether it's large enough to account for the nandrolone levels who knows?

-- Edited by dodrade on Monday 21st of July 2025 12:39:37 AM

Yes, exactly

I also would be curious to know whether blood levels are in proportion to weight

i.e. if a 100kg person eats 20kg of meat contamintated at 10%, and a 50kg person easts 10kg of the same contaminated meat, do they show as the same level in the bloodwork?

I'm assuming not (could be higher or lower, not saying it 'helps' Tara, just saying I bet it's not the same)

Also, post reading the study about the sleeping pills in the States 15 years ago, I am always interested to know what is the difference between how men and women metabolise the product

(as a reminder, the tests for the sleeping pills had all been done on men, because women are often excluded from test groups by pharma companies/government agencies because 'hormonal' changes might mess up the drug testing - which begs lots of questions in itself - and then they found that, because the drug was stored in fat, and fat slowed the metabolisation of the drug, women - with a higher body fat ratio for weight - retained the drug far longer - and hence it had caused quite a lot of driving fatalities early morning on their way to work, having been prescribed based on weight (based on men's weight) and told by doctors it was safe to drive and the drug would have cleared their systems by morning, which it did for men, but not for women)

And then there's simply the statement from the tribunal above which I read to be - we do the best to interpret how much anyone should have in the their blood, based on the info we have of how contaminated meat is, and then suddenly we get a study that says meat can be contaminated 7x more than we previously thought

emmsie69 · Top national player

The option potentially open to Tara is to replicate as far as possible her diet over that week in Bogota under study conditions and see if the results are in any way similar.
As for medical trials, even the rats used are Male.

dodrade · Futures qualifying

Tara's statement on Twitter.

https://x.com/TaraMoore92/status/1946952379200418012?t=RO0-_paStGY6gXncs8SMhQ&s=19

christ · Futures level

emmsie69 wrote:
The option potentially open to Tara is to replicate as far as possible her diet over that week in Bogota under study conditions and see if the results are in any way similar.
As for medical trials, even the rats used are Male.

The issue for me is that different cows from different farms will have different levels of chemicals, and even the same animal may have varying levels from day-to-day or week-to-week, so replication would be almost impossible.

christ · Futures level

dodrade wrote:
Tara's statement on Twitter.
https://x.com/TaraMoore92/status/1946952379200418012?t=RO0-_paStGY6gXncs8SMhQ&s=19

I don't know about her innocence, only she can know that, but I absolutely agree with everything else in her statement. The system is broken, and broken in a way that favours the rich and famous.