[ad_1]
Simona Halep deserves compensation. The major winner and former world No1. has not played a tournament since the 2022 US Open. It was at that time when Halep was banned after failing a test for a banned substance. The Romanian went from the highest of highs in tennis to the depths of despair. To all in tennis, it was a shock. She was the highest profile player to be banned since Maria Sharapova.
Simona Halep was living “the worst nightmare I have ever gone through in my life”.
Halep was accused of using the banned substance Roxadustat, a drug approved for medical use in the European Union to treat the symptoms of anemia caused by chronic kidney failure. She was then accused of irregularities in her Athlete Biological Passport.
READ MORE: ‘Emotional’ Thurston says ‘the game has failed’
READ MORE: Send-off rule gathers steam in AFL
READ MORE: Racing great sues F1 for $124m ‘injustice’
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) said the second charge “was based on an assessment” of Halep’s biological passport profile by an expert panel. These “passports” apparently highlight a baseline reading of substances in an athlete’s body and are a method of charting doping.
And like nearly every other player who gets picked up by the ITIA, the body that is endorsed by the ITF, the WTA, the ATP and the four majors, there were the protestations of innocence. Halep was no different, but a player is absolutely responsible for what they ingest.
The only thing is, for so many in tennis who have known Simona Halep, there was a feeling that this situation was not sitting right. She had always been a strong advocate for a clean sport and always had a very approachable and likeable personality.
Halep was put through the grinder by the ITIA. The delays and the postponements to her case were unacceptable and bordered on mental torture. There were suggestions that they were gathering more damning information and they eventually handed down a four-year ban. Halep launched an immediate appeal through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and eventually the ban was drastically reduced, and she was exonerated, but Halep’s career was nearly ended.
“In the midst of this challenging journey, my unwavering belief in the integrity of the truth and in the principles of justice has been my beacon,” she wrote in a statement. “Despite facing daunting accusations and formidable opposition, my spirit remained buoyant, anchored in my unwavering conviction of being a clean athlete. This ordeal has been a testament to resilience, and the triumph of truth is a bittersweet vindication that, albeit delayed, is immensely gratifying.”
Her coach Patrick Mouratoglou who had allegedly taken total control of everything to do with Halep, stayed relatively quiet about the situation in the beginning … until Halep supporters became vocal.
It was only after that, when Mouratoglou started to make comments that he did not believe the findings from the ITIA and he was shocked, etc. Whether it was convincing was up to the individual to decide but Mouratoglou then admitted that the contaminated supplement taken by Halep had been provided by him. He said he was “feeling responsible”. Halep had trusted him.
Warning signs of the supplements should have been considered and quite possibly they were not: The product was not batch tested for prohibited substances unlike many of its competitors in the market, meaning safety for any athlete is a lottery. It was apparently made by a pharmaceutical company which dabbles in supplements on the side and that would and could very likely raise the chances of cross contamination with unnatural products.
One red flag is enough to steer clear of a product.
Recently retired Australian player John Millman wrote on X last week: “Great to see Simona eligible to play again. Don’t let Patrick anywhere near your drinks on your return!”
On his new podcast Served, Andy Roddick and his guest Kim Clijsters slammed Mouratoglou and the team for what was administered. Roddick said it was a “vortex”.
“His team proposed for her to take (the offered supplements) and that she takes it without any hesitation, where you trust your team and where you trust the people around,” Clijsters said. “You believe that they know that they’re doing the right thing and then this happens to her. In a situation like this, for women especially, when you have coaches that take over your team where they…I mean, I call it manipulating. I don’t find another word for it, for taking control of everything that happens around an athlete I do have a hard time.”
Roddick added: “She basically flipped her whole team, and he was kind of in control, brought in his people, but it stinks because she’s going to end up being potentially the poster child of a conversation.”
Despite the condemnation, Mouratoglou appears to have escaped any potential punishment. The ITIA should be questioning him and his practices.
Halep added: “(The decision) marks a pivotal moment, as the tribunal has rendered its verdict, affirming my stance and bringing clarity to this chapter: (1) In a unanimous decision, the tribunal has cleared me of any wrongdoing regarding the blood doping allegations. (2) It was also unanimously determined that the unfortunate incident of the Roxadustat positive test stemmed from inadvertent supplement contamination, leading to a reduced sanction of nine months. (3) Furthermore, the tribunal has directed ITIA to compensate me with CHF 20,000.”
That is a paltry amount for what she has been through. Halep has severed ties with the Frenchman and for his admission of responsibility, shouldn’t Mouratoglou be compensating the one-time world No.1, who now has no ranking?
“To me the biggest red flag is the team,” Clijsters said. “I have a really hard time that there is no consequence for the team (and) that it’s just the athlete.”
But, in a bright note that has brought a smile to her face, Halep has accepted a wild card into the main draw of the Miami Open, which starts on March 18.
[ad_2]
