Iga Światek Breaks Silence After Accepting 1 Month Ban for Failed Doping Check

Polish tennis star Iga Świātek has addressed her one-month suspension following a failed doping check.

After the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA) introduced in a assertion on Thursday, Nov. 28 that Świątek, 23, accepted her one-month ban underneath the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme — following a optimistic check consequence for the prohibited substance trimetazidine (TMZ) — the world No. 2 ranked tennis participant defined the “robust” scenario in an Instagram Reel.

“I wish to be clear with you and I need you to know,” Świątek stated within the video, noting that she’s “lastly allowed” to talk up relating to her failed doping check, collected on Aug. 12.

“So I immediately wish to share with you one thing that grew to become the worst expertise of my life,” the athlete stated within the video’s caption, explaining that she had been subjected to “strict ITIA continuing” over the past two-and-a-half months since being knowledgeable of her optimistic check consequence on Sept. 12.

Świątek stated the proceedings “confirmed my innocence” and claimed she had “by no means heard about” the substance she examined optimistic for previous to the failed consequence.

“The one optimistic doping check in my profession, displaying unbelievably low stage of a banned substance I’ve by no means heard about earlier than, put all the pieces I’ve labored so onerous for my complete life into query,” Świątek wrote.

She stated she was “shocked” after the optimistic consequence returned. “And this complete scenario made me very anxious,” she continued, including, “At first I couldn’t perceive how that was even attainable.”

“Each me and my Group needed to cope with large stress and nervousness,” the Polish tennis star shared. “Now all the pieces has been fastidiously defined, and with a clear slate I can return to what I like most.”

Świątek thanked her followers for sticking by her aspect amid the suspension. “With out my supporters I’m not positive I’d have been capable of finding the power to hold on and hold preventing. Now I’ve fought the hardest battle in my life, and I hope you’ll stick with me and hold supporting me.”

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In the end, Świątek claimed that her check got here again optimistic as a result of a contaminated batch of melatonin she had been taking for sleep points.

“We immediately reacted and cooperated with the ITIA,” Świątek defined. “The detected focus which was extraordinarily low, recommended — or made it apparent — that both the pattern was contaminated, or a complement or treatment that I used to be taking was contaminated, which is why we centered on operating checks.”

After confirming that the melatonin had been contaminated throughout manufacturing, Świątek stated, “It was a shock to listen to, but it surely additionally defined so much.”

The ITIA agreed with that discovering after conducting “investigations and evaluation from two WADA-accredited laboratories,

“The ITIA accepted that the optimistic check was attributable to the contamination of a regulated non-prescription treatment (melatonin), manufactured and offered in Poland that the participant had been taking for jet lag and sleep points, and that the violation was subsequently not intentional,” the company stated of their Nov. 28 assertion.