In a stunning revelation, the independent tribunal that imposed a four-year ban on tennis star Simona Halep for doping has disclosed that it had “strong grounds for suspicion” that the Romanian athlete might have been involved in blood doping during last year’s Wimbledon. The tribunal’s newly published 125-page decision provides insight into the case, shedding light on the intricacies of this high-profile doping controversy.
The tribunal’s decision, unveiled on Thursday, discloses that Halep, a former world No. 1, had intentionally used the prohibited blood–doping agent roxadustat, as revealed by a test conducted during the 2022 US Open in August. Additionally, an expert panel identified abnormalities in Halep’s athlete biological passport after scrutinizing 51 of her blood samples.
Notably, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) advocated for a more severe penalty and asserted that Halep had been involved in blood doping since at least March 2022, in preparation for Wimbledon and the US Open that year. However, the tribunal stated, “Although there are strong grounds for suspicion, we are not comfortably satisfied that this is so.”
The tribunal pointed out that unlike the unequivocal assertion regarding the US Open in August 2022, there was no conclusive affirmation by the expert panel that blood doping by Halep was “highly likely.” A critical period from April 27 to September 22, 2022, lacked blood test data.
Halep, who boasts wins at the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, vehemently maintains her innocence and has declared her intention to contest the decision at the court of arbitration for sport. In a statement, she affirmed her commitment to “clear my name of these false allegations” while continuing her training and preparations.
The tribunal’s comprehensive decision also addresses Halep’s assertion that the elevated levels of roxadustat in her system could have been attributed to a Keto MCT supplement. However, the panel found it “not realistically possible” and contended that the levels of the banned substance in her body pointed to ingestion from an “unidentified source.”
As part of the case, an experiment involving a woman with a similar physique was conducted, administering the same amount of Keto MCT as Halep before her positive test. Shockingly, the control study found that the levels of the prohibited drug in Halep’s urine test were between “46 and 85 times higher” than the highest value recorded in the volunteer’s urine.
An expert presented the tribunal with data suggesting that Halep would have needed to consume between 900 and 5,000 times the recommended serving size of Keto MCT to produce the estimated roxadustat concentrations in her sample, making this scenario implausible based on the player’s account and the drug’s metabolism.
Simona Halep’s doping case continues to intrigue the sports world, with her vehement denial of wrongdoing setting the stage for a potential legal battle as she strives to clear her name and reputation.
