FILE – Iga Swiatek of Poland eyes on the ball as she performs towards 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 Picture/Andy Wong, File)
Iga Swiatek is the second high-profile tennis participant to check constructive for a banned substance this yr, becoming a member of Jannik Sinner. Whereas Sinner, presently 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 mentioned 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.
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READ: Iga Swiatek accepts one-month suspension in doping case
“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 important fault or negligence,” ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse mentioned in a video name with reporters. “So I don’t suppose it is a trigger for concern for tennis followers and the like.”
Here’s a have a look at the main points of the 2 instances:
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Who’s Iga Swiatek?
Swiatek is a 23-year-old from Poland with 5 Grand Slam titles who has been one of the best participant in ladies’s tennis over the previous 2 1/2 seasons, significantly on clay courts. She gained 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 practically 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 constructive for?
Poland’s Iga Swiatek celebrates profitable her semifinal match of the French Open tennis match towards Coco Gauff of the U.S. on the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Thursday, June 6, 2024. (AP Picture/Aurelien Morissard)
Swiatek’s urine confirmed low quantities of trimetazidine, a banned coronary heart remedy 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 advised 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 support, melatonin, that Swiatek’s psychologist purchased for her at a pharmacy in Poland, the place it’s offered as a drugs. Based on the ITIA report, Swiatek listed 14 medicines or dietary supplements she was utilizing, though not melatonin.
What’s trimetazidine, or TMZ?
Trimetazidine is a metabolic agent that may assist stop angina assaults if used as an “add-on therapy,” in response to the European Medicines Company. It will 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 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’ through 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 mentioned. She missed three tournaments through the Asian swing after the U.S. Open, though on the time, she didn’t give the true purpose 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, though 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.”
What is going on with Jannik Sinner’s case?
Jannik Sinner, of Italy, reacts after profitable a sport towards Taylor Fritz, of america, through the males’s singles closing of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 8, in New York. 2024. (AP Picture/Seth Wenig)
Sinner examined constructive 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 have been stored quiet till they have 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 important fault or negligence,” and so was given a light-weight punishment.
READ: Why wasn’t Jannik Sinner banned? What do different gamers suppose?
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Requested whether or not there are particular tips that decide the lengths of bans in such cases, 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 every part within the spherical, consider all of the circumstances and info within the case to come back to the suitable consequence.”
