The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Tuesday reduced the suspension imposed on Romanian tennis champion Simona Halep for two violations of anti-doping regulations, reducing it from four years to nine months, which she has served since last July.
After three days of hearing at the beginning of February, the sports court ruled that the positive test of the former world No. 1 came from a
“contaminated supplement”
, and that the anomalies in his biological passport could be linked to a “contaminated
supplement”. surgical operation
,” according to a press release.
The CAS therefore disavowed the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which had sanctioned Simona Halep on September 22, 2023, and demanded in this arbitration procedure
“a period of suspension ranging from four to six years”
against the double Grand Slam winner.
No match since October 7, 2022
The Lausanne court promises to specify
“as soon as possible”
the practical consequences of its decision, namely a suspension from October 7, 2022 to July 6, 2023 – already served even before Simona Halep appeals – and the annulment of all its results between August 29, 2022 and October 7, 2022.
Halep's career has been on hold since October 7, 2022, the date of the start of his provisional suspension after a test carried out at the US Open 2022, positive for roxadustat, a molecule which stimulates the production of red blood cells and which is classified among the EPO in the regulations of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The former world number one was then caught up in the spring of 2023 by a second affair, this time
“irregularities”
in the data of her biological passport, a long-term monitoring tool for high-level athletes.
Ruling at first instance, the ITIA had
“admitted the argument of taking a contaminated food supplement put forward by Halep”
, but
“determined that the concentration of roxadustat found in the positive sample could not result from the quantity ingested by the player”
– a reasoning invalidated on Tuesday by the CAS.
Concerning Halep's biological passport, the CAS integrated into its reasoning
"the results of a private blood sample provided by Ms. Halep on September 9, 2022, in the context of a surgical operation"
and although she had renounced any competition for the rest of the year, judging that these elements made
“the doping scenarios put forward by the ITIA”
implausible
.