The world number two on Polish TV: “I had a violent reaction after the positivity, I remember tears and panic. It’s difficult to make comparisons with other players”
“When I learned of the positivity I had a violent reaction, I remember the tears and the panic. I fought to demonstrate my total innocence, and I know that even in these cases people try to make comparisons between these situations with others that have already happened , but the truth is that each of these cases is different, so it is impossible to compare my case to that of Jannik Sinner or Simona Halep.” Iga Swiatek was the protagonist of an interview with Anita Werner on “Fakty po Faktach”, a very famous television program in Poland. For the world number two it was the first public outing since she revealed her version of the facts for the positive test for trimetazidine, contained by mistake, according to the court that judged the case, in a vial of melatonin.
nightmare
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The queen of Roland Garros recounted what she herself defined as a true nightmare. “My reaction was very violent. A mixture of incomprehension and panic. Lots of crying. I remember this email: we receive emails with notifications and updates when there are communications, I opened it convinced it was information for tennis players received automatically , but this time it was much more serious – said Swiatek -. I couldn’t get to the end, I had already burst into tears, they said that the reaction was that of someone who had just seen someone die, or had had a serious problem of health. I’m grateful I wasn’t alone. I gave the phone to someone, I thought it was a mistake. I didn’t really understand what was happening. It was completely new to me, I never heard of it I didn’t think much, I was just overwhelmed by emotions.”
without worries
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Swiatek said she was very lucky to still have a vial of that package with her which she was able to have tested in the laboratory in Salt Lake City, Utah, to demonstrate the origin and contamination: “I would prefer to say ‘not guilty,’ but I admit that for me it’s just a bureaucratic issue. For me, the best thing is for me to be able to prepare for the next season without any worries, focusing on the game. When they told me that it would all be over within a week, I accepted the verdict without thinking too much. Having received this punishment is a formality. They followed their rules, also because there was not a single person to judge me but there were all procedures to follow and this decision of the month’s stop was also dictated, in fact. , from procedures”.
comparisons with sinner and halep
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The Pole then continued by referring to the discussions that took place on the speed with which her case was resolved, also referring to the words of Simona Halep who expressed enormous discontent for what she had to suffer in return: “I know that in these cases people try to make comparisons between these situations with others that have already happened, but the truth is that each of these cases is different. And the process of proving one’s innocence is equally different my case, that of Sinner, of Halep, or of Majchrzak (Polish tennis player who went through a judicial odyssey for another case of testing positive for doping), because each of us is dealing with a different problem. This one is more for me a matter for ITIA and for the players. My fate, like that of others, is in their hands and it is they who decide how to evaluate each case. I want to believe that this process is honest and objective, that each case is treated according to the regulations and that no one can treat a player based on his position. But if this were ever to be the case, it would still be a question that ITIA must answer.
costs
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Swiatek also spoke about the costs of defending oneself, a non-trivial detail if we think for example of second or third tier tennis players who could never afford all this, with exams costing up to 15,000 euros: “I chose a lawyer in the United States, specialized in these cases. The fact that I had already earned a lot and could spend it on my defense, without batting an eyelid, definitely helped me. I know that many don’t have this opportunity and I think this is something that can also hold them back, because I was able to pay all the expenses instead. 70,000 dollars for the lawyer and around 15,000 euros for medical tests and expert opinions. On top of that, the prize money from the Cincinnati tournament was revoked but at the time I absolutely didn’t care. The thing I cared most about was proving my innocence. I’m telling you the more or less exact amount so that there is also a perception of what it means on an economic level, and because it’s not easy for those who don’t earn certain amounts on the pitch.”
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