Argentina’s Renzo Olivo claims that ATP was informed about contaminated meat at the event when a player failed a drug test
It has been reported that at a Challenger event where a failed drug test was recorded, players inadvertently consumed tainted meat, and the ATP was informed about this ahead of time.
Renzo Olivo, an Argentine, said on social media that he witnessed rival competitors at the June Ibagué Open consuming the meal.
The tournament hosted in Colombia on clay was the subject of a warning with players made aware of tainted meat prior to arriving. Previously rated as high as 78th in the world, Olivo claims he informed the ATP and requested that they send out a warning to all participants in the event.
The Brazilian athlete Nicolas Zanellato, 22, was given a suspended suspension earlier this week after testing positive for boldenone in two different tests.
After that, he filed an appeal with the ITIA, which found that the “evidence provided fell “far short” of the required threshold.”
Zanellato is currently barred from participating in or coaching at Tour events until he fulfils his suspension or prevails in his appeal before an impartial tribunal, which will eventually take place although there is no timeline for the hearing as yet.
“I played in the same tournament where he (Zanellato) tested positive, and I had to go to the supervisor and tell him to send an email to the players not to eat meat because there were players who didn’t know about it, and I saw a couple of them eating meat,” Olivo wrote on X.
“What did the supervisor say to me? ‘Ah, you’re right, we have to send it.’ Too late! Besides, it’s a substance that doesn’t give any sporting advantage.
“The news is made public, and then there’s an appeal; that’s the normal procedure. There’s no appeal before it’s made public.”
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Boldenone is a synthetic derivative of testosterone that is an anabolic androgenic steroid.
It is classified as an anabolic androgenic steroid in S1 of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) 2023 Prohibited List.
Colombian former Grand Slam doubles champion Robert Farah tested positive for the same chemical in 2020, but he was able to show that tainted meat was the cause of his test failure.
As of for now, the ATP has not responded to Olivio’s assertion.
Given the Jannik Sinner debacle many fans have questioned the ATP and ITIA over this incident with plenty of pundits and former playeers believing that the players were being set up to get trapped in a doping scandal.