Iga Swiatek honestly confessed that her strong financial status helped her act quickly and hire the best of the best to help her deal with the doping issue but also noted that she didn’t regret a bit spending nearly $100k because the most important thing was to clear her name.
During the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati in early August, the five-time Grand Slam champion was picked by the anti-doping officials for testing. On September 12th – just a week after concluding her US Open campaign – the world No. 2 was informed by the ITIA that one of her samples returned as positive for doping.
The moment Swiatek realized what the email was about, she started to panic and cry heavily, just as if “someone died.”
“My reaction was very violent. It was a mixture of incomprehension and panic. There was a lot of crying. We get a notification by email and by text message when there is a problem or when we need to complete something in the documents. I opened the email and thought it was a notification that players automatically get when they have to do something,” Anita Werner on Fakty po Faktach on TVN24.
“But this time it turned out that the email was much more serious. Generally, I wasn’t able to read it to the end, because I was already drenched in tears. My managers said that my reaction was as if someone had died or something serious had happened to my health. I’m glad I wasn’t alone, because I was able to hand them the phone and show them what happened.”
Swiatek: We had an emergency meeting, then I hired one of the best lawyers
After the initial panic and disbelief, the 23-year-old accepted that there was a big problem and that she needed to act quickly. That’s when the entire team gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss what to do next. During their session, everyone agreed that they needed to hire the best of the best to deal with the issue – they caught the wind of one of the best lawyers for such cases – and that’s how the process of preparing her defense started.
“The fact that I have such a position has definitely made me gather people around me who, as soon as I found out about this situation, bent over backwards to help me. A few hours after I found out, we all met and had a brainstorming session. I hired a lawyer from the [United] States who specialized in such cases,” Swiatek highlighted.
“The fact that I had already earned a lot of money and could afford to spend it on my defence, without even blinking an eye, has definitely helped. I know that many athletes do not have such opportunities and I think this is something that may hold them back, because I actually paid for the entire process.”
Iga Swiatek© WTA Finals Riyadh/Instagram – Fair Use
Swiatek: $70k went on a lawyer, €15k on other stuff
Early in the process, the key for the Pole was to find out how a banned substance got into her body. And it didn’t take long before they determined that it came through non-prescription melatonin medication pills that were manufactured in Poland. That medication was contaminated with banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).
Then, Swiatek appealed to the ITIA and it was a success as her provisional suspension was canceled – she was allowed to play the WTA Finals but the investigation into her case still didn’t finish. And when it concluded, it was ruled that the 23-year-old “bore no significant fault or negligence” for what happened and that she didn’t intentionally or knowingly take the prohibited substance.
She was handed a one-month ban on November 27th, with only eight more days left to serve.
“I spent about $70,000 on a lawyer, €15,000 on expert opinions and tests. On top of that, there was also the loss of the financial prize for Cincinnati, but – to be honest – it didn’t matter to me. The most important thing was to prove my innocence. I give these amounts in order to make people realize the problems faced by athletes who don’t make as much money as I do on the court and play sports in which salaries are much lower,” Swiatek revealed.
After going through what she described as “the toughest battle of my life,” it all ended well for the four-time French Open winner, whose ban expired on Wednesday and she will be able to start her 2025 season in time.
In late December, Swiatek plans to play for Poland at the United Cup ahead of the Australian Open.
Tennis World USA