Iga Swiatek has returned from her Maldivian vacation and resumed training in Warsaw with Wim Fissette. While she’s gearing up for the 2025 season, the controversy surrounding her doping allegations persists. This comes amidst a backdrop of strong anti-doping stances from tennis figures like Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who has advocated for lifetime bans for doping offenders. However, Kafelnikov’s recent support for Maria Sharapova raises questions about the consistency of his stance.
For the unaware, Sharapova is the first premier tennis star in history to fail a doping test at the Australian Open. Later, she admitted to using the banned endurance-enhancing drug known as meldonium in 2016. During that time she attended a press conference in LA and admitted, “I had been legally taking the medicine for the past 10 years, but on January 1 the rules had changed, and meldonium became a prohibited substance, which I had not known.“
On December 2nd, Yevgeny came up with a new tweet in which he wrote, “Looking back, i really have to admire what Sharapova has done!! Come forward first with press conference before it came out from somebody else!” While Sharapova held a formal press conference on March 7, 2016, to announce that she failed a regulation drug test, Swiatek’s situation was disclosed by the ITIA on Thursday last week. Unlike Sharapova, Swiatek opted for a social media announcement.
Fun Fact: Yevgeny Kafelnikov’s father, Aleksandr Kafelnikov, gave Maria Sharapova her first tennis racket in 1991 when she was four years old. Aleksandr was a friend of Sharapova’s father, Yuri.
Iga Swiatek, the former World No. 1, accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the prohibited substance trimetazidine (TMZ). The positive test was attributed to contaminated melatonin, a non-prescription medication she was taking for sleep issues. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) acknowledged that the violation was unintentional and accepted Swiatek’s explanation. The suspension was relatively lenient compared to other doping cases in tennis, leading to some controversy and debate.
In fact, the current No. 2 tennis player missed Korea Open, China Open, and Wuhan Open during that time. However, interestingly, Iga Swiatek had then cited fatigue, personal reasons, and her coaching split as the reasons for her withdrawals during that time. Not too pleased with Swiatek’s doping, the Russian ATP legend put up a tweet stating,
“Sometimes i wonder…..’ why the hell up i was not using steroids thru all of my carrier [sic], so i could play instead of 170 matches a year to maybe 300′? This is really [a] shame what’s happening to tennis now.” He further added, “It should be LIFE ban for anybody who gets caught using ban substances! NO excuses and ZERO tolerance no matter who your [sic] are!!!
Is Iga Swiatek unfairly judged compared to Maria Sharapova’s doping scandal? What’s your take?
Have an interesting take?
Later on, Nick Kyrgios portrayed his agreement with Yevgeny’s statement. Kyrgios came up with a tweet claiming, “The excuse that we can all use is that we didn’t know. Simply didn’t know. Professionals at the highest level of sport can now just say ‘we didn’t know’.” Surprisingly, Eugenie Bouchard was spotted showing her support for Kyrgios‘ statement. She shared his post and wrote, “Guess so” in the comments.
While many questioned Iga’s innocence and suggested stricter penalties, a toxicology expert unequivocally declared her not guilty.
Toxicology expert claims Iga Swiatek is “not guilty” of anything
Iga Swiatek almost broke down while releasing a statement on her doping controversy. She said, “This whole thing will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life, it took a lot of strength – returning to training after this situation nearly broke my heart…I have a sense this situation could undermine the image I’ve been building for years, which is why I hope you will understand what happened, understand how I had no control over it and could do nothing to prevent this unfortunate turn of events.”
According to Monday’s report from a Polish publication, sport.se.pl, Jean-Claude Alvarez, the professor of pharmacology, director of the toxicology laboratory in Garches, claimed “Iga Swiatek is not guilty of anything! She was only taking melatonin to fall asleep because she was suffering from jet lag. She was trying to sleep better to improve her results. I don’t understand why she was punished with a month’s suspension, we shouldn’t punish her at all. At least in people’s eyes, she would still be innocent.”
shockingly low concentration of the banned substance trimetazidine, a mere 0.05 ng/ml, was detected in Iga Świątek’s urine sample from August 13. Jean-Claude Alvarez underscored the existence of advanced tools that can unveil the truth behind doping cases, separating intentional use from accidental exposure. He further argued how everything cannot be controlled, saying,
Theoretically, an athlete is responsible for everything that enters his body. But in practice, such an approach is unrealistic, because it is impossible to control everything. An athlete would have to eat vegetables that he grows in his own garden, eggs from his own farm… It is not possible. An athlete cannot be responsible for everything that enters his body today, especially when we are looking for minimal concentrations in urine. That is why we need to set slightly higher thresholds”.
Guilty or not, the tennis world’s harsh judgment of Iga Swiatek may persist. In the meantime, Maria Sharapova can revel in the support of her compatriot.
