Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek handed BAN from tennis after positive doping test
TENNIS star Iga Swiatek has been slapped with a one-month doping ban following a failed drugs test.
The world No.2 and four-time French Open winner tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine in an out-of-competition test in August.
Swiatek immediately protested her innocence, claiming her ingestion of the substance was down to her ingesting a contaminated melatonin supplement.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency have accepted the 23-year-old’s explanation for how TMZ – which can aid athletic performance – ended up in her system.
But they have still hit the 23-year-old with a one-month period of ineligibility due to her lack of “due diligence”.
An emotional Swiatek took to Instagram took discuss her ban, saying: “I’m finally allowed.
so I instantly want to share with you something that became the worst experience of my life.
“In the last 2.5 months, I was subject to strict ITIA proceedings, which confirmed my innocence.
“The only positive doping test in my career, showing unbelievably low level of a banned substance I’ve never heard about before, put everything I’ve worked so hard for my entire life into question.
“Both me and my team had to deal with tremendous stress and anxiety.
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“Now everything has been carefully explained, and with a clean slate I can go back to what I love most.
“I know I will be stronger than ever. I’m leaving with you a long video and right now I’m just relieved it’s over.
“I want to be open with you, even though I know I did nothing wrong.
“Out of respect for my fans and the public, I’m sharing all the details of this longest and toughest tournament of my career.
“My biggest hope is that you will stay with me.”
Swiatek’s period of ineligibility will end on December 4
ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse said of the sanction: “Once the source of the TMZ had been established, it became clear that this was a highly unusual instance of a contaminated product, which in Poland is a regulated medicine.
“However, the product does not have the same designation globally, and the fact that a product is a regulated medication in one country cannot of itself be sufficient to avoid any level of fault.
“Taking into account the nature of the medication, and all the circumstances, it does place that fault at the lowest end of the scale.
“This case is an important reminder for tennis players of the strict liability nature of the World Anti-Doping Code and the importance of players carefully considering the use of supplements and medications.
“It is vital that appropriate due diligence takes place to minimise the risk of inadvertent ADRVs such as this.
“Help and support is available to players and their entourages, both directly through the ITIA, and through other organisations and schemes which check and test products.”