Iga Świątek Suspended

[jimlosaltos]

Iga Świątek tested positive for trimetazidine and will be suspended for one month She was provisionally suspended from September 22nd - October 4th The positive test came in August this year and was due to contaminated melatonin ITIA rules she had no significant fault or negligence.

WTA Statement is at this link.

[don_budge]

Sort of interesting that she gets nailed and Sinner skates. Not sure of the details. The devil is in the details no doubt. But at any rate...not a good look for the sport. Maybe they are all doping.

[neilchok]

I am trying to understand what would stop players from doping and additionally keep over the counter medication that is purposely tainted; with a trace amount of whatever doping agent, they are using. And then when they get busted, they give them tainted over the medication samples as evidence that they were not doping? How did Iga and her team come to the conclusion it was the melatonin?

[jimlosaltos]

I am trying to understand what would stop players from doping and additionally keep over the counter medication that is purposely tainted; with a trace amount of whatever doping agent, they are using. And then when they get busted, they give them tainted over the medication samples as evidence that they were not doping? How did Iga and her team come to the conclusion it was the melatonin?

Not sure I want to go down the rabbit hole of trying to argue current drug programs are rational -- they're not. BUT --- the "modest" suspension is because the dosage measured is ridiculously tiny, and the bureaucrats decided it was accidental. Doing real doping that would have any performance impact would show up as far greater positive tests. As for concluding it was melatonin, they have to convince which ever party they're dealing with ITF, WADA. Jannik Sinner's team used an OTC ointment that is legal in Italy but had an ingredient banned by WADA. So, they could provide a source and a story.

Others have gotten off because they played in events in Mexico, where steroids banned in the US for the food chain, and by international sports, are supposedly so widely used by farmers that simply eating beef in Mexico will get you a positive test.

One of many problems is that the system doesn't know how to deal with today's technology that can detect ridiculously small amounts of chemicals. That was highlighted by a French government scientist that testified in defense of Simona Halep -- essentially saying the test lab's claims were absurd. But the system is guilty until proven innocent and often punished even then.

Combine this with a culture of junior tennis where young players are reportedly stuffed with "supplements" by tennis phyios that are trained by osteopaths -- i.e. no expertise that remotely relates to the supposed impact of the unregulated supplements. A study several years back showed that 50% of over the counter supplements actually didn't contain the active ingredient they were peddling. Anyone can walk into a Walgreens, pick up a supplement that promises specular health benefits and, in reality, have no idea what they're actually taking, let alone what it does. So, teens are fed a stream of who knows what that does who knows what from unregulated factories that can cross contaminate chemicals of all sorts in the amounts that can now be measured.

Sorry. I'm venting :

[jimlosaltos]

I am trying to understand what would stop players from doping and additionally keep over the counter medication that is purposely tainted; with a trace amount of whatever doping agent, they are using. And then when they get busted, they give them tainted over the medication samples as evidence that they were not doping? How did Iga and her team come to the conclusion it was the melatonin?

For context, this story involves the same drug Iga was suspended for, in the ITF's opinion, being accidentally exposed to, TMZ:

NYT: The World Anti-Doping Agency’s investigative unit highlighted intelligence about Chinese athletes possibly using a banned medication, but were kept out of the loop when 23 swimmers tested positive. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/03/u...-android-share

[neilchok]

I would assume you would kind of have set some reasonable tolerance that would have to be agreed upon by the players union and the tennis league and television industry. I would assume they wouldn't want false positives as that would ruin the game, and lose a lot of people money.

It would be like getting an alarm system from my house that gets triggered by a butterfly flying around my window. I would think this would have been already thought threw in de, and they probably even gave a margin of error that was even more, because I would think they would not want to suspend their most famous athletes.

[jimlosaltos]

I would assume you would kind of have set some reasonable tolerance that would have to be agreed upon by the players union and the tennis league and television industry. I would assume they wouldn't want false positives as that would ruin the game, and lose a lot of people money.

It would be like getting an alarm system from my house that gets triggered by a butterfly flying around my window. I would think this would have been already thought threw in de, and they probably even gave a margin of error that was even more, because I would think they would not want to suspend their most famous athletes.

You're right it isn't a reasonable system, particularly now that the testing is so incredibly sensitive. But that is exactly what they do.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert. BUT first pro tennis is small potatoes in global sports and the drug testing system is a giant, and very political, bureaucracy. Second, there is no "players union" in tennis. The PTPA is a wannabe union that isn't legally organizable as a union ( tour players are "gig workers' like Uber drivers & most don't live where the not-an-employer is incorporated }. The ATP is a joint organization, with elected players' representatives on the board.

The whole global system is set up around 'You're guilty if there are any positive test results until and possibly even if proved not guilty.' Not the legal words but the system. There is a phrase something like the "player is responsible for what goes into their body". Period. If the player can convince the ruling organization that the exposure was not deliberate, then that is considered in the SENTENCING but does not make the player innocent.

Witness the Sharapova ruling. She appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which is roughly the equivalent of the Supreme Court for sports doping. The court ruled "this is not a case of a player cheating" and repudiated much of WADA's claims and accusations. Also, there is substantial evidence that the supplement has zero or even negative PED effects. WADA has testing capability but made zero attempt to prove the drug is a PED. But CAS still suspended her just for a shorter period. Sharapova's offense is too long and complex to re-litigate here but she had reported use of the supplement routinely for over a decade, then reporting was no longer required, finally WADA decided to ban that medication (but NOT the category of drug, just the specific one made in Russia) and communicated that in such manner it certainly appears the goal has to catch people ( Russians) unawares.

In the cases of Iga, Simona, and Sinner all three were found to have been unknowingly exposed yet the punishments were all different and, on the outside at least, appear totally arbitrary.

Sorry, too long a post.

[jimlosaltos]

Andy Roddick makes a good point: What is the purpose of testing for minute amounts of drugs that don't prove use to enhance performance?

Here's what Andy Roddick said on his podcast about the Swiatek’s doping case.

“I can’t call it doping. It’s like taking a melatonin for jet lag at 2:30 in the morning in Cincy and having… think about how many things had to go wrong for Iga Swiatek to get popped for melatonin and something that was contaminated,” the 2003 US Open winner said.

“It’s just unfortunate for her obviously. A negative test in Paris at the Olympics, negative tests in New York. So this isn’t some ongoing thing. It just sucks. It just sucks ’cause the headlines people will say, the dumbest people in our sports, ‘Ah, doping!’

“I’ve taken melatonin before. Who’s to say ours weren’t contaminated and are we going to continue to clutch pearls about one billionth of a gram of something or contaminated melatonin that didn’t have any performance enhancement.

“What are we trying to solve with the ITIA and then to WADA, what are we trying to solve for? Performance enhancement. We want to stop performance with drugs."

[neilchok]

I think it is interesting. I guess there are two options.

One is complete and total incompetence, where people just created a drug testing policy with zero common sense. As a result you have basically implicated some of your biggest stars in the game (Simona Halep, Maria Sharapova, Iga, Sinner and others). You have basically damaged the integrity of your game. And lost millions of dollars in revenues.

My opinion is there would be way too many checks, between agents, tv corporations, tennis federations, the players themselves, and their parents, that they would not repeatedly allow this to happen to multiple players without saying something. To me society is run by money, and people are not just going to willfully burn millions of dollars. I can't imagine something worse than being considered a cheater. Steroids almost brought down mlb completely. As a result I think this has to be some kind of coverup that has been implemented, where the drug testing is purposefully unclear, to help filter important players from being caught, or make the results so unclear, that the general public can question the results.

Note this has already been proven to have occurred with Andre, where he mentioned in his own book, he supposedly got busted for Meth or something like that, and the false positive was washed away.

I think Taylor Fritz himself seemed to indicate he seems confused on how drug testing is implemented. Also note Nick Kygrios was very skeptical of Sinners's false test, and wanted a 2yr ban for him.

[neilchok]

I have heard of good junior players being adminstered HGH to make them grow taller. The idea is that juniors are taking HGH at around the age of 12 or so to help foster growth. I have heard of players growing 6-8 inches in the summer after taking those type of drugs. And this is coming from credible sources, some of them being the coaches of the players. So if junior tennis players are doing it, I would assume top players are doing it as well.

Brooksby missed three separate drug tests. And was banned a yr and a half from the game. This was right after getting his best results in a grand slam.

[jimlosaltos]

Very candid commentary by Iga. She immediately hired a lawyer from the US that specialized in these cases, and spent roughly $100,000 on legal fees, tests, and expert opinions/

Then, Iga says "I know that many athletes do not have such opportunities, and .. that may hold them back, because I paid for the entire process".

[stotty]

Not sure I want to go down the rabbit hole of trying to argue current drug programs are rational -- they're not. BUT --- the "modest" suspension is because the dosage measured is ridiculously tiny, and the bureaucrats decided it was accidental. Doing real doping that would have any performance impact would show up as far greater positive tests. As for concluding it was melatonin, they have to convince which ever party they're dealing with ITF, WADA. Jannik Sinner's team used an OTC ointment that is legal in Italy but had an ingredient banned by WADA. So, they could provide a source and a story.

Others have gotten off because they played in events in Mexico, where steroids banned in the US for the food chain, and by international sports, are supposedly so widely used by farmers that simply eating beef in Mexico will get you a positive test.

One of many problems is that the system doesn't know how to deal with today's technology that can detect ridiculously small amounts of chemicals. That was highlighted by a French government scientist that testified in defense of Simona Halep -- essentially saying the test lab's claims were absurd. But the system is guilty until proven innocent and often punished even then.

Combine this with a culture of junior tennis where young players are reportedly stuffed with "supplements" by tennis phyios that are trained by osteopaths -- i.e. no expertise that remotely relates to the supposed impact of the unregulated supplements. A study several years back showed that 50% of over the counter supplements actually didn't contain the active ingredient they were peddling. Anyone can walk into a Walgreens, pick up a supplement that promises specular health benefits and, in reality, have no idea what they're actually taking, let alone what it does. So, teens are fed a stream of who knows what that does who knows what from unregulated factories that can cross contaminate chemicals of all sorts in the amounts that can now be measured.

Sorry. I'm venting :

I think it's a complex problem. For example, I learned recently an over-the-counter product from the same brand may have slightly different ingredients depending on the country. That's not obvious and an easy trap athletes might unwittingly fall into.

Perhaps WADA ought to take a slightly different approach when acting as judge and jury. They might consider asking what difference it makes when minuscule amounts of a banned substance are found in an athlete. Probably nothing in many cases.

We aren't talking Ben Johnson here where the steroids involved were mind-blowingly performance enhancing. Now there's a sport rife with problems...athletics. Reportedly, in the 1988 Olympic final, only two athletes in the field that day were believed to be clean.

[jimlosaltos]

I think it's a complex problem. For example, I learned recently an over-the-counter product from the same brand may have slightly different ingredients depending on the country. That's not obvious and an easy trap athletes might unwittingly fall into.

Perhaps WADA ought to take a slightly different approach when acting as judge and jury. They might consider asking what difference it makes when minuscule amounts of a banned substance are found in an athlete. Probably nothing in many cases.

We aren't talking Ben Johnson here where the steroids involved were mind-blowingly performance enhancing. Now there's a sport rife with problems...athletics. Reportedly, in the 1988 Olympic final, only two athletes in the field that day were believed to be clean.

Excellent points but I'm afraid WADA is too politically compromised to worry about what's best for either the sport or the athletes.

Iga was suspended for insignificant amounts of TMZ, the same drug that the Russian figure skater tested positive for taking, which caused her to be stripped of her gold medal.

Yet, the Chinese swim TEAM as found to be using TMZ extensively. WADA management "spiked it", diverting investigators.

I don't believe reform will start with WADA And tennis is the tail the can't wag the dog WADA's money comes from national associations for 1) soccer 2) Olympics. Rest is a small time annoyance.

[jimlosaltos]

Per Tennis 365: "Reports in the Italian media claim the Executive Committee of WADA met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and approved some changes that will be made to the anti-doping regulation and that will be effective from January 1, 2027.

They suggest there will be a new minimum reporting level to avoid cases that involve a minuscule amount of a banned substance, meaning a scenario like Sinner’s may well be eradicated.

Sinner tested positive for a banned substance twice in March but was absolved of fault or negligence by the ITIA, but the levels of the banned substance clostebol, an anabolic agent that can aid muscle growth, were not considered to be performance enhancing.

The ITIA accepted Sinner’s explanation that clostebol had accidentally entered his system via a product one of his team had used to treat a small wound.

Their decision was met with criticism in the tennis world, with some players surprised at the speed at which the case was heard.

NOTE: I scanned multiple posts by WADA about those meetings and don't see this significant change mentioned. Might require ATP announcing?