August 21, 2024, 8:29 PM
August 21, 2024, 8:29 PM
Acquitted after two positive tests Due to a doping product (the anabolic steroid costobol), the world’s number one tennis player Jannik Sinner has not yet been able to put an end to this matter, which does nothing to benefit his image.
Less than a week before the start of the US OpenIn New York, the decision of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has sparked criticism among some players and could be the subject of an appeal.
Sinner suffered two positive anti-doping tests in March 2024 eight days apart: March 10 during the Indian Wells tournament and March 18 out of competition but just before the Miami tournament. A trace amount of clostebol was found in their urine samples.
The Italian defended himself by explaining that he had suffered “contamination by a member of his technical team, who had applied an over-the-counter spray containing clostebol to his own hand to treat a small injury,” according to the ITIA.
An explanation accepted by the agencywhich on Tuesday revealed a case that had remained secret.
On both occasions, the player filed an appeal that allowed him to reduce his automatic suspensions (from April 4 to 5 the first, from April 17 to 20 the second).
But the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) told AFP on Wednesday that reserves “the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)”. The Italian Anti-Doping Agency (NADO) could also appeal for a suspension of the 23-year-old tennis player.
What is clostebol?
WADA classifies it among the “anabolic androgenic steroids” as a derivative of testosterone capable of stimulating muscle growth. Clostebol, which is not produced naturally by the body, does not have an allowed limit: It is enough to detect its presence for an anti-doping test to be considered positive.
Anti-doping authorities have not explained what amount would have a significant effect on performance.
What are the penalties provided for?
In the case of Sinner there are three possible thresholds for suspension from all competition: four years –the default sanction in case of violation of anti-doping rules-two years if he can prove that the ingestion was not intentional, or no suspension if it is established “how the substance entered his body”, showing that he himself did not commit “any error or negligence”.
It was this last conclusion that was accepted by the independent tennis tribunal, which imposed on Sinner the sanction provided for in such cases by the tennis anti-doping programme (TADP): the withdrawal of results, ATP points and bonuses in the tournament in which the positive test took place.
Have there been other comparable cases?
The same reasoning had been applied on March 21 with Marco Bortolotti, Sinner’s compatriot: positive for clostebol at the ATP Challenger tournament in Lisbon in October 2023, The Italian had argued that there was “unintentional contamination” and only lost the results obtained in that tournament, without suffering a suspension.
At the end of 2020, a study published in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis (‘Detection of clostebol in sports: Accidental doping?’) revealed an increase in clostebol detections, “particularly in Italy”, where this molecule is sold without a prescription and in the form of a healing cream, Trofodermin.
Last May, the doping specialist portal Honest Sport counted “38 Italian athletes tested positive for clostebol between 2019 and 2023”including footballer Fabio Lucioni, captain of Benevento Calcio, as well as two young tennis players, Matilde Paoletti and Mariano Tammaro. Honest Sport stressed the fact that Italy is one of the few countries where costebol can be easily purchased in pharmacies, but wondered about this cascade of contaminations, while a warning on the packaging of Trofodermin reminds of the presence of a banned agent in this cream.
How does it impact Sinner’s image?
Sober, diligent, but incredibly effective, Sinner has made his way to the top of tennis, winning the hearts of fans.
Although players like Frenchman Lucas Pouille (“Maybe we should stop taking each other for fools, eh?”) or Australian Nick Kyrgios (“You should be suspended for two years”) They clearly positioned themselves against their colleague through social networks.
Sinner did, however, receive support from his compatriot Nicola Pietrangeli in the Corriere dello Sport newspaper: “I am sure he is clean, and if I were him, I would have the money I deservedly won at Indian Wells returned to me,” said the two-time winner of Roland Garros in 1959 and 1960.
