The ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse recently commented on Jannik Sinner’s doping case. If the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) appeal against Sinner’s reduced punishment is upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the World No. 1 may be in for a lengthy suspension according to the ITIA boss.
Moorhouse discussed how Sinner’s case is more complicated and serious than that of Swiatek’s. She said (via Tennis365):
“In relation to Swiatek, the contaminated product was a medication. So it was not unreasonable for a player to assume that a regulated medication would contain what it says on the ingredients. The complication with the Sinner case is the positive test was not a result of a contaminated product. And so because it is not a contaminated product, the range for a sanction is one year to two years.”
In Swiatek’s case, the player said that she had accidentally consumed the drug in the form of medication for her sleeping issues. She served a month’s suspension on that basis.
On the other hand, in Sinner’s case, the World No. 1 said his physiotherapist had applied a cream containing a prohibited substance on himself and then massaged the Italian without gloves. The prohibited substance, Clostebol, was transferred and detected in Sinner’s blood samples taken in March 2024. The ITIA eventually ruled that Sinner bore ‘no significant fault or negligence’.
However, WADA has appealed against the judgment and wants Sinner to face stricter charges for doping. This appeal has brought back the debate on intent, and whether considering it while determining an athlete’s punishment upholds true justice or not.
