File image of Poland’s Iga Swiatek serving through the Billie Jean King Cup
| Picture Credit score: AP
Iga Swiatek is the second high-profile tennis participant to check optimistic for a banned substance this yr, becoming a member of Jannik Sinner. Whereas Sinner, at the moment the No. 1 ranked man, was totally cleared, Swiatek, who slid from No. 1 to No. 2 final month, accepted a one-month suspension that was introduced Thursday (November 28, 2024).
The Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company mentioned it decided that Swiatek’s tainted urine pattern was due to a contaminated drugs she took and so she bore a low degree of accountability.
“These usually are not instances of intentional doping. These are instances — in Sinner’s case … no fault or negligence. In (Swiatek’s) case, very low finish, no vital fault or negligence,” ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse mentioned in a video name with reporters. “So I don’t assume it is a trigger for concern for tennis followers and the like.”
Here’s a have a look at the small print of the 2 instances:
Who’s Iga Swiatek
Swiatek is a 23-year-old from Poland with 5 Grand Slam titles who has been the perfect participant in girls’s tennis over the previous 2 1/2 seasons, significantly on clay courts. She received 4 of the previous 5 French Open titles, together with the final three in a row, plus one U.S. Open championship, and has been ranked No. 1 almost each week since April 2022. Swiatek additionally collected a bronze medal on the Paris Olympics in early August.
Swiatek’s urine confirmed low quantities of trimetazidine, a banned coronary heart treatment generally known as TMZ, in an out-of-competition take a look at on Aug. 12, 10 days after her final match on the Summer time Video games and shortly earlier than the beginning of the Cincinnati Open. She was informed she was being provisionally suspended on Sept. 12, eight days after dropping to Jessica Pegula within the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
It was discovered that the TMZ had contaminated a sleep support, melatonin, that Swiatek’s psychologist purchased for her at a pharmacy in Poland, the place it’s bought as a medication. In response to the ITIA report, Swiatek listed 14 drugs or dietary supplements she was utilizing, though not melatonin.
What’s trimetazidine
Trimetazidine is a metabolic agent that may assist forestall angina assaults if used as an “add-on therapy,” based on the European Medicines Company. It may possibly improve blood move effectivity and enhance endurance — each essential to high-end athletic efficiency. It’s on the World Anti-Doping Company’s prohibited listing within the class of “hormone and metabolic modulators.” The substance was concerned in previous Olympic athletes’ instances involving Russian determine skater Kamila Valieva and 23 Chinese language swimmers.
Swiatek was given a provisional ban that started in September, after the U.S. Open, however that was lifted as a result of she rapidly supplied a plausible clarification for the contamination — one which was backed up by exams, the ITIA mentioned. She missed three tournaments through the Asian swing after the U.S. Open, though on the time, she did not give the true cause for being sidelined.
Ultimately, the ITIA and Swiatek agreed she would serve a one-month suspension; as a result of she was credited for the time she already missed, there have been eight days remaining in a “one-month” penalty, so she is “serving” these now, despite the fact that the season is over.
Swiatek was capable of play within the WTA Finals and the Billie Jean King Cup. “The worst a part of it was the uncertainty,” she mentioned. “I didn’t know what was going to occur with my profession, how issues would finish or if I might be allowed to play tennis in any respect.”
Sinner examined optimistic for a banned anabolic steroid twice in March, however nothing got here to gentle till August, simply earlier than the U.S. Open, which he went on to win for his second Grand Slam title of 2024.
As with Swiatek, the instances had been saved quiet till they had been resolved as a result of each gamers supplied what ITIA discovered to be believable explanations. He blamed it on a cream his coach used earlier than giving Sinner a therapeutic massage and so was cleared utterly — though WADA has appealed that ruling — whereas Swiatek was discovered to have been “on the lowest finish of the vary for no vital fault or negligence,” and so was given a lightweight punishment.
Requested whether or not there are particular pointers that decide the lengths of bans in such situations, Moorhouse mentioned: “No, there isn’t. This isn’t the place you set this stuff into machine and it spits you out a quantity on the finish of it. It’s a case of contemplating all the things within the spherical, consider all of the circumstances and information within the case to return to the best final result.”
Printed – November 30, 2024 11:35 am IST
