Tennis Star Iga Świątek Suspended for 1 Month for TMZ, Same Substance as 23 Chinese Swimmers

The world’s #2-ranked tennis player Iga Świątek has been given a 1-month ban for trimetazidine (TMZ), the same substance that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for in the leadup to the 2021 Olympic Games.

Świątek, 23, failed an out-of-competition drug test in August. On Wednesday, she admitted the anti-doping rules violation and accepted the sanction. The ITIA accepted her explanation that the test was caused by contaminated nonprescription melatonin that she was taking for issues with jet lag and sleeping.

The ITIA said that her fault was “at the lowest end of the range for no significance fault or negligence.”

The suspension only has eight days remaining; she was provisionally suspended from September 12 to October 4 and missed three tournaments, and she will be cleared to return to play on Monday. She also forfeits $158,944 in earnings from the Cincinnati Open, where she lost in the semifinals in her first tournament after failing the test.

“In the last 2½ months, I was subject to strict ITIA proceedings, which confirmed my innocence,” Swiatek said in a social media post.. “The only positive doping test in my career, showing unbelievably low level of a banned substance I’ve never heard about before, put everything I’ve worked so hard for my entire life into question.

“Both me and my team had to deal with tremendous stress and anxiety. Now everything has been carefully explained, and with a clean slate I can go back to what I love most.”

TMZ was responsible for 23 Chinese swimmers testing positive in the run-up to the 2021 Olympics, which didn’t become public knowledge until earlier this year. The athletes were let off without sanctions after Chinese administrators blamed contaminated food.

That led to an escalating global war of words between doping administrators in the U.S. and the World Anti-Doping Association, with the latter threatening to pull accreditation from the U.S.

The melatonin pills she took were manufactured and sold in her native Poland. Trimetazidine is widely available for prescription in many countries, including Poland, though it is not prescribed in others, like the U.S.

While Świątek’s positive test has drawn many comparisons to the case of the Chinese swimmers, there are a couple of key differences. One is that Świątek was provisionally suspended after the test, and eventually given a punishment, which the Chinese athletes were not. The other is that Świątek was able to provide a batch of pills for testing to a laboratory outside of her home country, specifically the WADA-accredited SMRTL in Utah, USA, with independent verification from a different laboratory.

WADA, meanwhile, relied on CHINADA internal investigations that turned up TMZ contamination on spice containers, drains, and an exhaust fan, and relied on supporting circumstantial evidence (like a group of swimmers staying at another hotel) to support the findings.

The substance is also the one that led to the first doping suspension of Chinese Olympic gold medalist Sun Yang, though he said that he was provided the substance by his doctor.

Świątek won bronze in singles at the 2024 Olympics. She is a four-time French Open Champion and one-time U.S. Open Champion.