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Now that her case has been decided, it was publicly announced on Thursday that world No. 2 Iga Swiatek, a multiple Grand Slam champion, has been issued a one-month suspension for a positive doping test.

And this case, coupled with the ongoing situation with men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner, demonstrates two things.

The first is that any player is just one error of inattention, one contaminated supplement, a few missed whereabouts confirmations, away from disaster.

And the other is that no matter how plausible the explanation, how little (or no) effect it might have on performance, a player always carry that blemish with them for the rest of their career.

And it’s also worth mentioning, to the sane people out there, that each anti-doping case is significantly different to the other. And that comparisons between these two cases (or others) don’t necessarily serve much useful purpose unless the details are very, very similar.

Swiatek has another week to go in the one-month suspension issued as a result of being found at the “lowest end” of “no significant fault” for testing positive for trimetazidine, a medication used to treat angina. But is also can be used to improve heart function, especially in sports requiring endurance. Which is why it has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of prohibited substances since 2014.

The full decision is here, if you want to dig in.

Swiatek is more than aware of the potential reputational hit to a career in which she said she has always strived to compete fairly and honestly, and be a good role model.

Hence, a lengthy video posted today outlining the case, and the last few months (we offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of the Polish subtitling).

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Two things are worth noting about her video statement, though. One is the characterizing of the one-month suspension as “symbolic” (of course, leaning on the possibly inaccurate subtitles here).

The other is her use of the word “innocent”, which was also used by Halep after her case ended. That’s not accurate. Despite the lowest level of fault ascribed, she is not “innocent” of failing a doping test.

A statement from the Polish Tennis Federation today also misuses the words “innocence” and “symbolic”.

The Timeline

Here is the timeline of event, after an “out-of-competition” test was performed the day before the start of the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati last August.

Swiatek, having competed at the Olympics in Paris and having won the bronze medal, did not play the Canadian event. Her first stop in North America, therefore, was Cincinnati. And to combat the jet lag, she took melatonin – as she regularly did.

The sample tested positive for TMZ. And then the race to find the source and fault began.

Notable in this quest was the refusal of the (unnamed) Polish company that manufactures the product to cooperate in any way – or even to reply to the requests from the ITIA.

But it emerged in the course of the investigation into this that the same company also manufactures the angina medication, most commonly known under the brand name “Vasterel”.

Notable takeaways

Under veil of secrecy, Sinner absolved of fault in positive doping test

– Unlike in the U.S., where melatonin is considered a “dietary supplement” and Canada, where it’s classified a “natural health product” – both categories of which are subject to far more lax regulations than actual pharmaceuticals – melatonin is a regulated product in Poland. So in theory it would be subject to stricter controls and oversight. That actually helped Swiatek’s case, because it could reasonably be understood that there is less risk in taking that Polish-made version, as compared to one manufactured in a country where it’s not regulated.

– Here’s a warning from the US Anti-Doping association about the risks involved with melatonin, even though it’s not banned. It stands out that the variance in the amount of ACTUAL melatonin present in any sample has a range of … 500%.

– Swiatek took the melatonin as part of a routine to help her sleep and combat jet lag. She referenced the “stress of the job” leading to sleeplessness in her video. If the melatonin doesn’t work, she ups it to a prescription sleep medication.

– She took “2-3” tablets of the melatonin in the middle of the night, the weekend before the Cincinnati tournament began and the night after she fulfilled her media obligations, because she was still up and couldn’t sleep. The anti-doping people literally came to her hotel room door just 4-5 hours later for the out-of-competition test.

– Swiatek’s physical trainer did due diligence, checking the ingredients list for the melatonin product against the WADA prohibited list, and found nothing amiss. She had been using melatonin purchased in Poland for “many years”.

As WADA appeals the Jannik Sinner case, there are QUESTIONS

– Swiatek’s tests at the Olympics Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, and at the US Open Aug. 26, didn’t test positive for it. Which makes sense, as in neither case would she have been suffering from jet lag.

– Notably, the melatonin was not on the list of … 14 supplements and medications she listed for the test. The explanation that she forgot it because it wasn’t on the list of medications and supplements she regularly just takes and copy-pastes on every doping control form was plausible in the sense that it’s not part of her regular regimen. That she’d been up half the night with jet lag and was tired (and possibly groggy from the melatonin and awakened from that sleep) and forgot to specifically add it is also fairly plausible. The ITIA didn’t consider the omission “satisfactory”, but accepted the reasons.

***Swiatek after beating Paula Badosa at the BJK Cup finals. She was able to return to play at the WTA Finals and there because the appeal of her provisional suspension was accepted.***

–That Swiatek on a regimen of … 14 supplements and medications certainly seems like a lot. But anecdotally, it seems to be par for the course. When Maria Sharapova’s case was adjudicated, it emerged that there were nearly … 30 such products on her list, all suggested by a Russian doctor her father took her to at the time. That included the meldonium. And I heard of another player who brought everything she was taking with her, when she underwent a battery of tests aimed at improving her nutrition. It reportedly was a pretty big bag, full of supplements and snake-oils and all sorts of things.

– Swiatek’s sports psychogist, the ubiquitous Daria Abramowicz, was the one tasked with buying the melatonin, which she did at several reputable pharmacies located near Swiatek’s home. Abramowicz was able to provide receipts for those transactions – and, notably, one of them was detailed enough that it contained the product AND the batch number, which matched the samples submitted for testing.

– When the product was sent to a separate lab in Salt Lake City, Utah for analysis, they discovered the TMZ inside the crushed tablet, on the surface of some tablets and in the interior of the container. In other words, it was ALL over a product that wasn’t supposed to contain ANY. And the fact that the largest concentration was in the crushed tablets suggested the contamination occurred during the manufacturing process. It was determined that this was “more likely than not” the source of the contamination.

Testing of the remnants of the melatonin supplement that triggered the positive finding were tested, and the conclusion was that they were contaminated with TMZ, which is the ingredient in an anti-angina pharmaceutical manufactured by the same Polish company (Pics for illustrative purposes only).

– The ITIA posits that Swiatek “could have selected a melatonin product that was batch-tested for anti-doping purposes”, or had it batch-tested herself. This process exists and is available. You suspect she’ll take advantage of it going forward. In fact, the WTA offers “safe” USANA supplements (including melatonin) free of charge to its players – although with the relative lack of oversight on supplements in the U.S. no product is 100 per cent safe – a disclaimer USANA does include in its promise to the WTA players that its products are safe. The risk factor, because of the continuum between the regulation of legitimate medications and “supplements” and that this one in particular is actually regulated in Poland, falls somewhere between the two extremes but closer to the medications side.

–The ITIA wrote that anti-doping cases involving genuine contamination of regulated medications are extremely rare. Which is why they proposed the one-month ban. The fact that it happens to be a regulated product in her country most definitely helped her case here.

Swiatek got “time served”, so to speak, during the investigative process. So there’s a week left in that month, with the suspension over on Dec. 4.

She missed the Seoul and Beijing tournaments because her provisional suspension appeal hadn’t yet been granted. And she also missed the Wuhan WTA 1000. because the entry deadline for that event fell within the same period.

The reasons given, it’s safe to say, did not correspond with the truth. This was not dissimilar to other cases, such as when Marin Cilic tested positive and missed nine months. That was originally ascribed to a “knee injury”.

Swiatek also will forfeit the prize money and points from her effort in that Cincinnati event. That’s 390 points and $158,944 US.

(It’s either a coincidence, or not, that Oct. 4 – the day the suspension appeal was granted – also was the day Swiatek announced she was parting ways with coach Tomasz Witkorowski).

Comparable cases

Notably, the WTA Tour came out with a statement on this case. (We don’t recall if they did for other players, including Simona Halep. But perhaps they have).

Statement from the WTA:

The WTA acknowledges the decision by the International Tennis Integrity Association (ITIA) – which administers the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP) – in issuing a one-month suspension to Iga Swiatek, following the identification of a contaminated…
— wta (@WTA) November 28, 2024