How Iga Swiatek explained away a doping case and a contaminated melatonin product

Iga Swiatek has become the second high-profile tennis player to test positive for a banned substance this year, with the five-time Grand Slam champion and current world number 2 receiving a one-month ban from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).

The ITIA announced on Thursday that Swiatek had accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) – a drug used to treat heart conditions and which, in a sporting context, can increase blood flow and can improve endurance.

It comes just months after men's world number 1 Jannik Sinner tested positive twice for clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid. Sinner was acquitted as the ITIA accepted there was no fault or negligence – although the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) appealed.

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Meanwhile, Swiatek was found to be at the lower end of the spectrum, without significant fault or negligence, after the 23-year-old Polish player explained that her doping violation was caused by a contaminated supply of the over-the-counter drug melatonin, which she takes to help for jet lag and sleep problems.

After interviews with Swiatek and analysis of the drug by independent laboratories, the ITIA accepted the explanation that the melatonin provided to her by her physiotherapist had been contaminated during production, resulting in an extremely low trace of TMZ. Swiatek tested positive in an out-of-competition test on August 12, before the Cincinnati Open.

How did TMZ end up in the Swiateks system?

Swiatek explained that she has been taking melatonin to help regulate her sleep patterns and deal with jet lag, which resulted from her frequent travel. In Poland, melatonin is classified as a drug and is available in pharmacies. Swiatek said her physio would usually buy the product for her.

Swiatek competed at the Paris Olympics and won the bronze medal on August 2 after losing to Qinwen Zheng in the semi-finals the day before. She arrived at the Cincinnati Open shortly before August 12, where she was called around 6:00 to 7:00 am to provide a sample for doping control. A urine sample was collected and taken to a WADA-accredited laboratory in Montreal for analysis.

Swiatek was asked to list on a doping control form any medications or supplements she had taken in the past seven days. She provided a list of 14 supplements and medications on the form, but did not mention melatonin, even though Swiatek later explained that she had taken two to three tables of the product that morning around 2-3 a.m. when she couldn't sleep .

When providing evidence to the ITIA, Swiatek explained that she forgot to include melatonin because it was not on her list of medications and supplements that she would copy from form to form. She also said she was tired because her sleep was interrupted by being called up by doping control. The ITIA later said that the reasons for this omission were unsatisfactory.

Swiateks' urine sample was split into an A sample and a B sample, and the A sample was found to contain the banned substance TMZ. Swiatek was informed of her positive test on September 12 and she responded two days later requesting further analysis of her B sample, which yielded the same result as the A sample: a trace concentration of 50 pg/ml.

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How Swiatek proved contamination

Swiatek was given a provisional suspension on September 12, which she appealed within the ten-day period. She intentionally or knowingly denied using TMZ, claiming she did not know the source of the TMZ in her sample, and told the ITIA that it must have been accidentally ingested due to contamination.

After being notified of her positive B sample, Swiatek and her team sent packages containing all the products she had used prior to the August 12 test – including the melatonin – to two laboratories, one in Paris and one in Strasbourg . The analysis of the products used by Swiatek showed that the sample of melatonin tablets – a Polish-made product called LEK-AM Melatonina – that she ingested on the morning of August 12 was contaminated with TMZ, and those results were sent to the ITIA .

In response, the ITIA said it would examine the melatonin tablets at another WADA-accredited laboratory in Salt Lake City, Utah. But the ITIA said it was unable to contact the Polish manufacturer of the melatonin, despite attempts to do so by telephone and email, to obtain from itself a pack of the product from the same batch. The ITIA said this was not possible due to the product's expiry date and the lack of response from the manufacturer.

Instead, the Swiateks team provided both the opened package of the melatonin product used on August 12 and a sealed package of the same lot. The ITIA said it had verified that the sealed container obtained was from the same batch as that used by Swiatek (the batch numbers matched) and that the sealed container had a tamper evident seal.

On October 4, the Salt Lake City laboratory said it had found TMZ in tablets from both the opened and previously sealed containers of melatonin, and ruled that contamination had occurred during production. The ITIA ruled that the entire batch of melatonin was contaminated and despite the lack of response, the ITIA also said that the manufacturer of the melatonin also makes a TMZ product in the same factory.

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Additional tests and the ITIA ruling

Swiatek was also called for drug tests on August 1 and 2, following her semifinal and bronze medal match at the Paris Olympics, as well as at the US Open. She was informed of her positive test eight days after her quarterfinal defeat to Jessica Pegula. All other drug tests around the August 12 date came back negative, with Swiatek only using the melatonin product that morning as she had trouble sleeping.

The ITIA ruled in Swiateks' favor, ruling that the negative tests, as well as samples of Swiateks' hair that contained no traces of TMZ, showed that she could not have used the substance as a therapeutic dose before August 12. The ITIA said Swiatek's offense was at the lower end of the range of no significant fault or negligence. Swiatek accepted the one-month suspension offered by the ITIA.

Once the source of the TMZ was identified, it became clear that this was a very unusual example of a contaminated product, which is a regulated drug in Poland, ITIA chief executive Karen Moorhouse said.

However, the product does not have the same designation worldwide, and the fact that a product is a regulated drug in one country may not in itself be sufficient to prevent possible errors. Taking into account the nature of the drug and all the circumstances, it does put that error at the lower end of the scale.