the essential
Returning to competition, the Pole reversed her sanction for having tested positive in an anti-doping test. She explains that she faced difficult times.
Doping resurfaced in Tennis news at the end of the 2024 season. After the Jannik Sinner controversy, Iga Swiatek, in turn, tested positive for a banned substance: trimetazidine. Guest of Caroline Garcia’s Tennis Insider Club podcast, the four-time winner of Roland-Garros explained how she experienced this media whirlwind.
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Doping-Tennis: “Prohibited method”, “intravenous vitamins”… Another Grand Slam winner suspended?
“It touched my personal side because I thought everyone was going to turn their back on me,” she recalls. “You can be at peace with yourself thinking you didn’t do anything wrong, but no one really treats you like this. Especially the people who chase you, even when you tell the truth, you feel like they treat you like a liar.”
Stirring on the circuit
The short suspensions reserved for the two world stars caused an uproar on the world circuit. Several players like Nick Kyrgios and Richard Gasquet had expressed their incomprehension regarding the decisions of the ITIA (international agency for the integrity of tennis). The body communicated the sanctions against Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek very late, reinforcing the feeling of injustice among some.
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Tennis-Doping: “I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt but…” The muscular exit of a French champion after the controversies
As a reminder, laboratory analyzes finally established that the current world number 2 had been contaminated by ingesting a melatonin-based medication purchased in Poland. She took it to better manage jet lag. The ITIA thus ruled that the doping was not voluntary. Iga Swiatek was suspended for a month and thus lost her first place in the world. She recently returned to competition and is preparing for the Australian Open.
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