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Maria Sharapova Drowns Rio 2016 Woes In Barcelona Holiday And Harvard Classes

By Jenny Cox
Published on: 09:27 PST, Jul 13, 2016

Maria Sharapova tried really hard to get her two-year suspension appealed for Rio 2016, but it looks like that is not going to happen. However, that doesn’t mean the 29-year-old tennis star is going to drown herself in Rio 2016 woes.

Since the next time she will be able to compete in the Olympics is when she is 33, she has been trying her best to get her suspension appealed in time for the games, but it looks like she will have to fold up her hopes.

“A ruling on Maria Sharapova’s appeal of her two-year doping ban has been postponed until September, ruling her definitively out of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro,” reports the New York Times. “The Court of Arbitration for Sport said that Sharapova and the International Tennis Federation had agreed to defer the decision, which had been expected to be issued by next Monday. The court said that both parties wanted more time to prepare their cases and cited ‘scheduling conflicts.'”

The date that her case will be re-examined is set to be September 19.

Despite the career altering event, Maria Sharapova has been using her time doing things that she would not have been able to do if she were professionally playing tennis. She is currently in Barcelona with her family and enjoying the sights and sounds of the Spanish city.

“Maria Sharapova carried on regardless as she continued her break with family in Barcelona,” reports the Daily Mail. “The 29-year-old tennis star rocked a sophisticated holiday style in a striped green blazer over a black blouse teamed with a pair of denim shorts.”

She also posted about it on her Twitter, showing her fans that she plans to be widely traveled during her time off.

Not having to compete for a while means that she also gets to indulge herself in delicious food that doesn’t strictly follow her diet plan.

Other than going on holidays, Maria also has been taking classes at Harvard Business School, networking with other important people, and learning how to expand her business, Sugarpova.

When the tennis star first heard of her suspension ruling, she took to Facebook to air her grievances.

“I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension,” Maria wrote on her Facebook page. “The tribunal, whose members were selected by the ITF, agreed that I did not do anything intentionally wrong, yet they seek to keep me from playing tennis for two years. I will immediately appeal the suspension portion of this ruling to CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”

But her attempts to appeal the ban has been looking bleak, with the entire Russian track and fields team also getting banned from the Olympics because of the same substance that Maria used — melodium.

“Russia’s track and field team is barred from competing in the Olympic Games this summer because of a far-reaching doping conspiracy, an extraordinary punishment without precedent in Olympics history,” reports the New York Times.

The article reported that the allegations were both broad and detailed, revealing that Russian track and field stars were “given a three-drug cocktail of banned substances and liquor” and that “authorities helped athletes evade drug tests by surreptitiously swapping out tainted urine” and destroying “thousands of incriminating samples.”

But the 29-year-old Russian athlete has been steadfast in her statements, saying that she has only tested positive for melodium, a substance that has been legal up until January of this year, because she has been taking it for years due to her heart condition.

Either way, she will have to forego Rio 2016.

Do you think Maria’s suspension will get lifted once September 19 rolls around? Let us know in the comments below!

[Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Images]

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