FILE – Iga Swiatek of Poland eyes on the ball as she performs in opposition to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia throughout their ladies’s bronze medal match, on the 2024 Summer time Olympics, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photograph/Andy Wong, File)
Iga Swiatek is the second high-profile tennis participant to check optimistic for a banned substance this 12 months, 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.
The Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company stated it decided that Swiatek’s tainted urine pattern was due to a contaminated drugs she took and so she bore a low stage of accountability.
Article continues after this commercial
READ: Iga Swiatek accepts one-month suspension in doping case
“These should 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 stated 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 take a look at the small print of the 2 instances:
Article continues after this commercial
Who’s Iga Swiatek?
Swiatek is a 23-year-old from Poland with 5 Grand Slam titles who has been the perfect participant in ladies’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.
When did Iga Swiatek fail a drug take a look at? What did she take a look at optimistic for?
Poland’s Iga Swiatek celebrates successful her semifinal match of the French Open tennis event in opposition to Coco Gauff of the U.S. on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Thursday, June 6, 2024. (AP Photograph/Aurelien Morissard)
Swiatek’s urine confirmed low quantities of trimetazidine, a banned coronary heart medicine 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 instructed she was being provisionally suspended on Sept. 12, eight days after shedding to Jessica Pegula within the U.S. Open quarterfinals. It was discovered that the TMZ had contaminated a sleep assist, 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, or TMZ?
Trimetazidine is a metabolic agent that may assist forestall angina assaults if used as an “add-on therapy,” in response to the European Medicines Company. It may possibly enhance blood circulate effectivity and enhance endurance — each essential to high-end athletic efficiency. It’s on the World Anti-Doping Company’s prohibited record 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.
When was Iga Swiatek suspended? Is she ‘banned’ throughout the offseason?
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 rationalization for the contamination — one which was backed up by checks, the ITIA stated. She missed three tournaments throughout the Asian swing after the U.S. Open, though on the time, she didn’t give the true cause for being sidelined. Finally, 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 in a position to play within the WTA Finals and the Billie Jean King Cup. “The worst a part of it was the uncertainty,” she stated. “I didn’t know what was going to occur with my profession, how issues would finish or if I’d be allowed to play tennis in any respect.”
What is going on with Jannik Sinner’s case?
Jannik Sinner, of Italy, reacts after successful a sport in opposition to Taylor Fritz, of the US, throughout the males’s singles ultimate of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 8, in New York. 2024. (AP Photograph/Seth Wenig)
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 stored 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 light-weight punishment.
READ: Why wasn’t Jannik Sinner banned? What do different gamers assume?
Your subscription couldn’t be saved. Please strive once more.
Your subscription has been profitable.
Requested whether or not there are particular tips that decide the lengths of bans in such situations, Moorhouse stated: “No, there isn’t. This isn’t the place you set these items into machine and it spits you out a quantity on the finish of it. It’s a case of contemplating every little thing within the spherical, take into consideration all of the circumstances and details within the case to come back to the proper end result.”
