Iga Swiatek suspended after testing positive for banned substance

For the second time in 2024, one of the best tennis players in the world has violated anti-doping rules. The International Tennis Integrity Agency announced Thursday that Iga Swiatek, currently number two in the world, had tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication used in Europe and Asia to treat angina. It was detected during an out-of-competition test conducted by Swiatek just before the Cincinnati Open in August, ITIA said. Swiatek officially admitted to the anti-doping rule violation and agreed to a one-month ban from sport; her three-week provisional suspension earlier in the year counts towards this ban and she is currently serving the remaining eight days during a meaningless period in the tennis calendar. She was also stripped of $158,944 in prize money and 390 ranking points for her semifinal in Cincinnati.

Swiatek had already been provisionally suspended while she sought to explain the source of trimetazidine to the ITIA. In doing so, she missed the tournaments in Seoul, Beijing and Wuhan in September and October. Swiatek was able to have his suite of at least 14 supplements analyzed to identify a possible source of contamination. She concluded that the culprit was his melatoninthat Swiatek has been using for a long time, she saidbecause with “all my travels, jet lag and work-related stress mean that sometimes without it, I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep.” She provided opened and unopened containers of melatonin to ITIA, which had them analyzed and found the contamination matched traces of trimetazidine detected in Swiatek’s urine sample. Her provisional suspension was lifted and she was able to continue competing at the year-end WTA Finals, according to the ITIA decision.

The ITIA ruled that Swiatek’s actions placed her in the “absence of significant fault or negligence” category, earning her a one-month suspension. She was not recognized as “without fault or negligence”, which could have allowed her to continue without any suspension, as was the case earlier this season with the No. 1 in men’s tennis, Jannik Sinner. (This finding is currently under appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency.)

“Once the origin of TMZ was established, it became clear that this was a very unusual case of a contaminated product, which in Poland is a regulated medicine,” said ITIA director Karen Moorhouse. said . “However, the product does not have the same name overall, and the fact that a product is a regulated medicine in one country cannot alone be sufficient to avoid any level of misconduct. Given the nature of the medicine and its all In certain circumstances, this places this fault at the bottom of the scale.

Swiatek explained his side of the story in a video:

Some observations here. When it comes to combating anti-doping rule violations, it clearly helps to have the resources of a world number one with eight-figure tournament winnings. In this case, Swiatek was able to order an analysis of its supplements in a private laboratory; it was an essential part of the appeal this allowed his suspension to be lifted. Similarly, Sinner was able to build a sophisticated legal defense so quickly that both of his provisional suspensions were lifted almost immediately, without even interrupting his playing schedule. Another point of interest: Swiatek disclosed a list of 14 supplements and medications at the time of her doping test and initially forgot to list melatonin, claiming it was not on the list of substances she copied on her anti-doping forms and that she was tired after only sleeping a few hours. The volume of substances is consistent with what I have long expected: a top player who can afford a sophisticated staff is probably taking a wide range of supplements, tiptoeing up to the line of the list of banned substances, to eliminate any competitive advantage. possible.

Even the World Anti-Doping Agency doesn’t know whether anti-doping authorities operate under sensible protocol. In a recent interview with The Team Discussing these high-profile tennis cases, WADA director Olivier Niggli observed that laboratories had become more efficient in identifying “infinitesimal” quantities of doping substances. “The quantities found are so small that it is possible to become contaminated by doing even insignificant things,” he said. Although raising the thresholds would allow them to ignore these cases, he fears it could also open the door to “micro-doping.” He said WADA would open a working group to consider the issue.