As World No.1 Jannik Sinner prepares to play in the US Open beginning next week, the entire tennis world has been taken aback by the news of him testing positive twice for a banned anabolic steroid in March.
Sinner won the Cincinnati Masters title on August 19. On the very next day, the world received the news of his failed doping tests, unknown until then, from his X account. He shared a statement titled ‘Jannik Sinner cleared of any wrongdoing by Independent Tribunal’.
An in-competition test at the Indian Wells tournament on March 10 saw Sinner testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid clostebol. A second test eight days later yielded the same results. The first sample was recorded at 76pg (picograms) per milliliter while the second was recorded at 86pg per milliliter. For reference, one picogram is equal to one trillionth of a gram.
If a player tests positive, the benchmark sanction is four years of ineligibility. As a non-specified substance, an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for clostebol warrants mandatory provisional suspension from tennis.
Sinner was suspended after being tested positive. However, he later appealed those bans and was allowed to continue playing while the tribunal investigated the case.
Sinner said that his fitness coach Umberto Ferrara bought an over-the-counter medical spray called Trofodermin that is normally applied to cuts and contains clostebol.
At the Indian Wells tournament, Sinner’s physiotherapist Glacomo Naldi cut his pinky finger. Ferrara then advised Naldi to apply Trofodermin on the cut. For the next couple of days, Naldi applied the spray to his cut while simultaneously giving Sinner full-body massages. According to the statement released by Sinner’s team, the physiotherapist treated him without gloves leading to contamination through skin lesions on the tennis star's body.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which handles the anti-doping and anti-corruption investigations for the sport, had accepted his explanation saying he was neither negligent nor at fault. The amount was “less than a billionth of a gram” as per Sinner’s statement.
The decision has taken the tennis world by storm. Journalist Eric Jonsson noted that the ITIA report said the amount of clostebol was too little to be performance-enhancing.
However, some players have slammed the ITIA's decision. Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios took to X to express his displeasure with the ruling.
Kyrgios even debated the issue with people on social media, insisting that Sinner 'should be gone'.
British player Liam Broady criticised the speed with which Sinner’s case was resolved, noting that other athletes who were found guilty in doping tests faced a harsher penalty.
Sinner was suspended for just five days in all. The non-disclosure of the positive doping tests until August 20 and the speed with which the issue was resolved raise serious questions about the credibility of anti-doping agencies.
Former No.1 and two-time grand slam winner Simona Halep’s four-year doping ban was recently reduced to nine months after the Court of Arbitration (CAS) ruled that she was not guilty of intentional doping.
Halep had tested positive for roxadeutat and was suspended in September last year. The banned substance had entered her body from the consumption of the contaminated supplement Keto MCT.
The ITIA banned her last year and asked CAS to extend the ban. At 32, a potential four-year ban would have meant the end of her career. However, later CAS ruled that the anti-doping violations were not intentional and she bore no fault or negligence.
Halep won the legal battle but it was not before she had to fight it out for almost a year. Even though she tested positive for a larger amount of the banned substance in her body, it took much longer for her case to reach a conclusion.
Similarly, British No.1 Tara Moore was also sidelined for 19 months in May 2022 after she tested positive for anabolic steroids boldenone and nandrolone. She was cleared of the offence only last year. With the Sinner incident coming to light, she took to X to openly criticise the system for favouring top players.
It is not the first time that famous or higher-ranked players’ huge penalty periods were reduced so that they could still be eligible to compete.
In a controversy in 2018, Sun Yang, China’s star swimmer, and his team allegedly destroyed his blood sample for anti-doping tests, claiming that the test was not conducted as per WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) protocols.
Destroying the blood sample amounted to his non-compliance with the anti-doping rules. In February 2020, Yang was handed an eight-year ban after being found guilty of tampering with the process. However, the CAS later reduced his ban to four years stating that the circumstances did not warrant the eight-year ban.
In another case, American sprinter Justin Gatlin was suspended twice in 2001 and 2006 over doping allegations. The first suspension came after he tested positive for amphetamines while he was a student, resulting in a two-year ban. However, it was later reduced to one year after he appealed arguing that it was medically recommended and not for performance enhancement.
Gatlin tested positive for testosterone in 2006. This being his second doping allegation and the substance being a clear violation of anti-doping regulations, he faced the possibility of a lifetime ban. However, he cooperated with the investigation, and his ban was cut down to four years after being reduced to eight.
After his ban, he won bronze in the 2012 London Olympics and continued to compete, defeating Usain Bolt in the 2017 World Championship. His case raised questions on the fundamentals on which the anti-doping agencies work and if certain athletes of higher stature are dealt with more leniently.
Ahmad Nassar, the executive director of the Professional Tennis Players’ Association, took to X to voice his concern about anti-doping practices. The lack of consistency, he says, undermines the system’s credibility.
According to a report by Honest Sports, between 2019 and 2023, 38 Italian athletes tested positive for clostebol, despite it being scarcely produced by pharmaceutical companies.
Two junior Italian tennis players had tested positive for clostebol in 2021. One of them, Mariano Tammaro, was one of the top-ranked junior tennis players in the world when he tested positive. The other, Matilde Paoletti, played at the French Open before she was caught using the banned substance. Both allegedly used clostebol sprays to heal wounds.
Sailor Roberto Caputo and volleyball player Orsi Toth were earlier disqualified from the Rio Olympics after they tested positive for clostebol right before the Games.
According to WADA, nearly half of the clostebol cases were from Italy as it still remains readily available in the Italian pharma markets. Trofodermin, which is widely used in treating cuts and other open wounds, has been at the centre of many cases. Even contact with the cream in any way holds the risk of testing positive.
In a period when anti-doping rules have become stricter and more sensitive, why haven’t athletes, claiming to be innocent of doping, become more sensitive to the situation?
And why can't doping tests and assessments by officials stay neutral and fair to every sportsperson irrespective of their world ranking or the sport?
Answers are needed - and fast - or else athletes may lose faith in the integrity of the system.