The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced on Monday that it would not appeal Iga Swiatek’s one-month suspension.
The Pole, current 2nd player in the world, was sanctioned for a positive test for a banned substance carried out in mid-August 2024.
WADA’s scientific experts considered that the reason given by the Polish player, drug contamination, was ‘plausible’ and ‘that there would be no scientific grounds to challenge it before the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) ‘.
Swiatek, 23, tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a heart medication, in an out-of-competition sample in August, when she was world No. 1. The affair only came to light three months later, after the player accepted a one-month suspension. Absent from three tournaments in Asia, she then cited personal reasons.
In his defense, Swiatek then stressed that the result of the test was accidental and that it had been caused by the contamination of an over-the-counter substance, melatonin, used to combat sleep problems.
-An accepted scenario
‘WADA has carried out a full review of the file relating to the decision of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (Itia), which it received on November 29. WADA’s scientific experts confirmed that the specific scenario of contaminated melatonin, as presented by the player and accepted by Itia, is plausible and that there are no scientific reasons to contest it before the TAS’, WADA explained in a press release.
In a similar case, Jannik Sinner, world number one among men, tested positive twice last March due to traces of the steroid clostebol. He was then exonerated by Itia, but WADA nevertheless appealed and it will be examined on April 16 and 17 by the CAS.
/ATS
