The ‘case Fishermanis still settling into the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAD), when another new doping shakes the foundations of tennis. Racquet sport found itself facing the positive Iga Swiatekcurrent world number two and former number one until a few weeks ago. The Polish tennis player accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for Trimetazidine last August, during an out-of-competition test.
This was reported by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. Swiatek, one of the best tennis players of the last five years and one of the symbols of the women’s circuit, was sanctioned with a small penalty. According to the ITIA, the Polish woman tested positive after being contaminated by a medicine purchased without a prescription, although unintentionally, given that she was taking the medicine to combat sleep problems caused by the time difference.
“ITIA accepts that the positive result was due to contamination of a regulated medicine and over-the-counter (melatonin), manufactured and sold in Poland, which the player had been taking since time difference and sleep problems. The violation was therefore not intentional,” the agency said in its press release.
The Pole was provisionally suspended during the second half of September and the first days of October, which led her to be absent from three tournaments on the Asian tour. These days count for punishment, so now She will only have to be separated for eight more days. And the tennis season being over, the sanction will not have major sporting effects.
Same positive point as Swiatek, but more severe punishment
A radically opposite situation crosses the figure skater Kamila Valieva. She was sanctioned last January with a four-year suspension for having tested positive for trimetazidine, the same substance as Iga Swiatek. The Russian, considered the world’s best skater when she was 15, won Olympic gold at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, two months after testing positive.
Last January, Russian authorities acquitted the skater, but the TAS He reversed this decision and sanctioned him with a four-year suspension. This closes a case that began 23 months ago and was marked by Russia’s tense relations with the rest of the anti-doping authorities.
Kamila Valieva assured that her poisoning, it should be remembered that it occurred when she was 15 years old, was caused by cooking on the same cutting board on which her grandfather crushed trimetazidine pills. THE difference in sanction for the same positivefrom four years to just one month, arouses controversy in the world of sport.
Something similar happened when Sinner tested double positive for Clostebol. The Italian continued to compete and his case is still before the courts. In both cases Jannik and Swiatek, their positions in the rankings and the magnitude of their numbers in the tennis world have lessened the impact. This is not the case for other tennis players like Simona Halep or Cilic, who served heavier sentences.
