The head of the body called the International Tennis Integrity Agency, ITIA for short, tried to explain the totally different decisions, diametrically opposed, we will say, in the case of doping scandals regarding Simona Halep and Iga Swiatek.
Over three weeks ago, Iga Swiatek was caught doping with the substance called trimetazidine, a banned substance, and accepted a one-month suspension, received after arguing that she had consumed a contaminated medication, somehow the same scenario that happened to Simona Halep, a double Grand Slam champion in her career.
Our tennis player launched a wave of harsh accusations towards ITIA, an organization that wanted to destroy her, says Halep. Karen Moorhouse, the CEO of ITIA, has a different opinion and claims that the two cases are different. And that obviously, in her opinion, they cannot be treated and judged in the same way. She pointed out what the differences are between the contaminated product taken by Swiatek (a medication, melatonin, taken for better sleep) and the one taken by Halep (a collagen supplement).
"The rules and processes are the same for every player. Each case is different and based on individual facts. Cases can be quite complex, so it is not fair to look at two titles and make comparisons between cases because details always play a key role.
Let's look at Swiatek and Halep. TAS found that her supplement was contaminated. So, after this discovery, they gave her 9 months.
The Tribunal decided based on the objective guilt she had and the subjective guilt she should have had. What should she have done about the product that was found to be contaminated? In Swiatek's case, the contaminated product was a medication. So it is not incomprehensible that a player would assume that a regulated medication would contain what is listed on the ingredients list.
Therefore, the level of guilt she could accept was the lowest because she could do very little to reduce the risk that the product would be contaminated. Halep's contamination was not from a medication. It was from a collagen supplement and her level of guilt was considered higher. The essential point is that you rarely find two identical cases because all have specific facts," Moorhouse stated in an interview for tennis365.com.
Moorhouse also explained why Iga Swiatek was allowed to play at the WTA Finals and BJK Cup Finals and then was suspended for another 8 days: "The clock started on the day she received the letter of accusation, then she was provisionally suspended. As she is entitled to do according to the regulations, she contested that suspension and the appeal was successful. When it was decided that the final sanction would be a one-month suspension, the 22 days she had served were deducted, meaning that she had only 8 days of suspension left," Moorhouse further conveyed.
Recently, on Thursday, Simona Halep faced Swiatek in a doubles exhibition match at the World Tennis League. The Romanian played alongside Jasmine Paolini, and the two defeated Swiatek and Badosa, with a score of 7-5.
D.A.