Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek drug scandals spark huge rule change – but it may not save Sinner
The tennis world has been rocked in 2024 by failed drug tests for two of the sport’s biggest stars, with the cases of Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek set to spark a huge change in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules.
Swiatek accepted a one-month ban after testing positive for the angina drug trimetazidine, with the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepting it was caused by contamination of the regulated non-prescription medication melatonin, which Swiatek took for jet lag and sleep issues.
The news came only three months after men’s world No 1 Sinner was cleared of any fault over two positive tests in March, with those failures also not announced at the time.
WADA have appealed against Sinner’s ban and is calling for a suspension of one to two years for the Italian, but these two cases appear to have sparked a big change in the mindset of the organisation that oversees doping control in all sports.
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.
“Every player who gets tested positive has to go through the same process,” said Sinner. “There is no shortcut, there is no different treatment, they are all the same process.
“I know sometimes the frustration of other players obviously, but maybe because they got suspended they didn’t know exactly where it comes from.
“Also what substance, but the main reason is where it comes from and how it entered in his own system.
“We knew it straight away and we were aware of what happened. We went straight away and I was suspended for two, or three days. I couldn’t practice and everything, but they accepted it very, very fast and that’s why I continued to play.”
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Changes to the drug testing thresholds may help players in the future, but they are unlikely to aid Sinner as he fights WADA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport next year.
Most observers expect he will be handed a suspension, yet the comments from WADA director Oliver Niggli in an interview with L’Equipe suggest they appreciate the levels of clostebol in Sinner’s system could not have been performance-enhancing.
“Today there is a problem of contamination,” said Niggli. “There are no more (doping cheats) than before, but laboratories are more efficient in detecting infinitesimal quantities of doping substances. We will have to open a working table to understand how to manage this situation.
“The quantities found are so small that it is possible to become contaminated by doing even trivial things.
“I understand the public, who thinks we are naive and that we believe everything. But the reality is different. There is a problem.
“If we wanted to simplify our lives, we could impose new thresholds and not find all these cases. But the real question is: Are we ready to accept microdosing? Where do we stop?
“With thresholds, we wouldn’t have seen all these cases. What we need to understand is whether we are ready to accept microdosing and where it is right to stop. A working table will be created precisely for this type of reflection.”
With testing technology improving all the time, sport may need to allow tolerance levels for supplements that may be contaminated, as was the case with Swiatek.
Yet the eyes of the sporting world will fall on the Sinner case in 2025, with any suspension almost certain to be followed by an appeal by the current world No 1.
It remains to be seen whether he would be allowed to continue playing while his appeal was heard, but that seems unlikely if a suspension is imposed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
