Top tennis players Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek have been involved in drug scandals during the 2024 season. The incidents have ignited a heated controversy in the tennis world. Prompting a closer examination of how the rules are enforced. On December 5, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Executive Committee and Foundation Board convened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. To review and implement new guidelines to ensure sports integrity.
World No. 2 Iga Swiatek tested positive for trimetazidine in August 2024, resulting in a one-month suspension. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted her argument. That the banned substance was contaminated with non-prescription medication used to treat jet lag and sleep disorders. In her scenario, Rule 10.6.1 of the WADA rules may apply because she consumed a contaminated legal product. The rule allows for up to a 100% decrease in the two-year ineligibility period.
Jannik Sinner tested positive for clostebol, an anabolic steroid, in March 2024. An independent panel exonerated him of wrongdoing. Accepting his defense that the banned chemical entered his system accidentally during a massage from his physiotherapist. He had used clostebol spray to treat a personal injury. That is why Sinner was not eligible under regulation 10.6.1. Because his product was not tainted but did contain Clostebol as a declared ingredient.
Changing Times or Changing Ethics
However, he may have qualified for 10.6.2, a category in which the athlete does not exhibit considerable fault. This provision allows for a 50% reduction of the sentence. Sinner was, however, cleared by an independent panel with no ban at all. A decision that has now been disputed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
The new rules state, “An unforeseeable source of a Prohibited Substance, such as ingestion of a medicine containing the Prohibited Substance which is not specified on the label or whose presence cannot be identified by a reasonable Internet search. Consumption of food or drink, such as contaminated meat or water, which contains the Prohibited Substance without a warning or other communication notifying of the possible presence of the Prohibited Substance. Exposure to a Prohibited Substance which has been used or possessed by a third person, either through direct contact by the Athlete with the third person or through contact with objects touched or handled by the third person; or through environmental contamination.”
