Matildas star Aivi Luik saw her world crash down around her after being found guilty of a doping violation before the Paris Olympics. She wants to use her experience as a warning to other athletes.
Matildas player Aivi Luik has revealed that she has been found guilty of an anti-doping violation after being treated for a back injury — but wants to use her experience as a warning to other athletes.
"I want to stress how hard the situation was, in the fact that the communication was really difficult, because they didn't really speak English, obviously I didn't speak Italian, and but what he did say was a cortisone. And so in my head, I'm like, oh, cortisone. You know, athletes, we get them all the time, especially footballers, two or three days, you're out, and that's it.
"I was freaking out … like I didn't know if it was a real email, because of the way it was written. I didn't know what my avenues were," she said."You are always kind of advised, like, this can't be official, if it's something like that, it will be sent to you in the mail, it will have more substance to it than an email, basically.
"There was no test, no test to say that I was positive, yet they're saying that it had a performance enhancing effect. But, yeah, there was no test. So how can you say that?" she said. Luik said there was a chance to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but, although Luik would "love to continue this fight" a prohibitive legal bill and the emotional toll it would take made her think twice.All this was taking place at the end of May, around the time the Matildas Olympic selection was taking place.
"They could have easily have torn up my contract and not wanted to have anything to do with someone who's received a sanction, but they've been the complete opposite.
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