Coincidences have long since become a rarity in professional sports, everyone has a crystal clear role and an even clearer responsibility if they happen to "jump out of the system" or make that system not work well enough.
It's like that everywhere in the world, but in Montenegrin sports, when the time comes to assume that responsibility - silence reigns.
Such silence reigns for days in Water Polo and the Swimming Association of Montenegro, and it is not the first time. So it took practically seven days for the journalists to find out (and unofficially) that it was Aleksa Ukropin during the World Championship in Doha, received the news that he failed the doping test that was done during the preparations for the World Cup. That silence continues - there is no reaction from VPSCG.
There is no reaction, and will there be responsibility? Will anyone, except of course the 25-year-old water polo player, who will no doubt be severely punished and miss the Olympics in Paris, feel the need to explain to the public how it is possible for an athlete to take a prohibited inhalant drug on his own? That he does not inform or ask the responsible and professional people in the national team and the Federation if he is allowed to consume it. Because doping control is always possible, in the middle of the day or at night...
There are no coincidences, obviously someone in VPSCG is not doing their job well enough (regardless of the fact that the biggest responsibility lies with the player himself), because the "doping" case happened for the second time in two and a half years.
Before Ukropina, another guy from the "inconvenient side" "paid" Djuro Radovic, but the reason was different - he violated the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and received three minuses because he did not fill out the documentation that every athlete is obliged to fill out on three occasions.
The fact is that Ukropina did not intentionally introduce an illegal substance into his body, nor did Radović knowingly allow himself to receive three minuses from Wada, but if this tandem of left-handed water polo players was careless enough to make a mistake that cost them in perhaps the most important period of their career - in VPSCG had to anticipate such situations and educate the players. Short and clear - to do their part. Because the role of the medical team is as important as the tactical ideas of the coaches or selectors, the ideas of the players on the field, in this case in the pool...
Indeed, it seems unreal that in 2024, any athlete would take any medicine or remedy for a cold without consulting a doctor or physiotherapist of the national team, especially in the short-term break between two major championships.
In serious federations, the order during or before the start of preparations for major competitions is known - for each medicine, the member of the national team must call someone from the medical team in the middle of the day or the middle of the night to ask if what he thinks he is using is on the list of allowed funds. Especially when it comes to cold medicines, which often contain ephedrine, the use of which has been strictly prohibited for decades.
It is unnecessary to talk about Radović's case, because every athlete should know very well that the Wada rules must be respected. But it is obvious that no one prepared him or Ukropina for such scenarios. That is why the "sharks", who have already dropped out of the world water polo elite, will be weaker for one of the main shooters at the Olympic Games in Paris...
Ukropina is neither the first nor the last Montenegrin athlete who "failed" a doping test, but his case is a warning for everyone. As was i Ivone Pavićević, who underwent laser intravenous therapy in her former club, Romanian Corona, without informing anyone from the Handball Association. She believed in the club, that's why she took a break for 16 months.
Montenegro has an Anti-Doping Commission, headed by dr Olivera Prodanović. Maybe this last case will force her to organize a workshop or lectures, at least for top athletes. We don't have too many of them to keep running out of some...
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