LONDON — The use of meldonium, the drug taken by Maria Sharapova, was common in tennis before it was banned, Dick Pound, chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency's investigation into Russian athletics, said on Wednesday.
Five-times grand slam champion Sharapova tested positive for the drug at this year's Australian Open and faces a ban of up to four years, pending an investigation by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Pound said Sharapova only had herself to blame for not realizing meldonium, which some researchers have linked to increased athletic performance and endurance, had been outlawed since Jan. 1.