Tennis champion Iga Swiatek accepts one-month ban in doping case – NBC New York

Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek has accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication known as TMZ, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced on Thursday.

Swiatek failed an out-of-competition drug test in August, and the ITIA accepted his explanation that the result was unintentional and caused by contamination with melatonin, an over-the-counter medication Swiatek took for jet lag and sleep problems.

ITIA said his level of error was determined to be “at the low end of the range, with no significant errors or omissions”.

“This experience, which has been the hardest experience in my life so far, has taught me a lot,” said Swiatek, a 23-year-old from Poland. video shared on social media.

“Everything will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life. It took a lot of time to get back to training after this situation almost broke my heart, so I shed a lot of tears and had sleepless nights,” Swiatek said, speaking in Polish, with an English translation scrolling at the top of the post. “The worst part was the uncertainty. “I didn’t know what would happen in my career, how things would turn out, or whether I would be allowed to play tennis.”

This is the second recent high-profile doping case in tennis: Top-ranked Jannik Sinner failed two steroid tests in March and was cleared in August, just before the start of the US Open. won his second Grand Slam title of the season. Sinner never missed a competition; the The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the decision This cleared him.

Swiatek first reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings in April 2022 and has remained there for most of the time since, although she is currently ranked at No. 2 after overtaking Aryna Sabalenka in October.

Swiatek won her fourth title and fifth major title overall at the French Open in June, then took home a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in early August.

“WTA fully supports Iga during this difficult time. Iga has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to upholding the principles of fair play and clean sport, and this unfortunate incident highlights the challenges faced by athletes in the use of medications and nutritional supplements,” he said. We remain steadfast in our support of the sport and the rigorous processes that protect the integrity of competition. “We also emphasize that athletes should take every precaution to verify the safety and suitability of all products they use, as even unintentional exposure to prohibited substances can lead to significant consequences.”

Swiatek formally admitted the anti-doping rule violation and accepted the penalty on Wednesday. TMZ is the medicine at the center Case involving 23 Chinese swimmers Those who remained eligible despite testing positive for performance enhancers in 2021.

Swiatek said she was “shocked” by the test result and had never heard of TMZ. He said he had used melatonin “for a long time” and added: “All my travelling, jet lag and work-related stress means I can’t sleep without it sometimes.”

He was already provisionally suspended from September 22 to October 4, and missed three tournaments during the post-US Open hard court tournament in Asia: the Korea Open, the China Open, and the Wuhan Open.

This temporary ban ended when it was revealed that the applicant’s test result came from accidentally contaminated melatonin.

Since the final agreement dealt with a one-month suspension, he will now serve the remaining eight days as long as there is no competition and will be cleared to return to play as of December 4.

“I can start my new season with a clean slate by focusing on what I’ve always done, which is just playing tennis,” said Swiatek, who recruited the team. Wim Fissette as coach In October.

Swiatek was also fined $158,944 in prize money he earned during his semifinal run at the Cincinnati Open in August immediately following the positive test.

“Once the source of TMZ was identified, it became clear that this was an extremely unusual example of a contaminated product that was a regulated drug in Poland. However, the product does not have the same identification globally and the fact that a product is a regulated drug in one country , alone cannot be sufficient to prevent errors at any level,” said ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse.

“Given the nature of the drug and all the circumstances, this error is at the lower end of the scale,” Moorhouse said. The Anti-Doping Code and the importance of careful consideration of players’ use of supplements and medications.”