Swiatek has too much talent to risk doping, says Wertheim

Tennis analyst Jon Wertheim has come to the defence of the former world number one Iga Swiatek after she was involved in a doping scandal. The 23-year-old is already regarded as one of the best players currently playing in women’s tennis, along with the likes of Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka.

Swiatek was recently involved in a doping scandal after a positive out-of-competition test for the banned substance trimetazidine. Following the positive result, the reigning world number two was handed a one-month ban. The decision received widespread criticism from a certain quarter of the tennis community, including some current and former players who demanded equal treatment for all players involved in such incidents.

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Tennis analyst Wertheim has written an article in Sports Illustrated where he defended Swiatek despite being involved in such a scandal. The 54-year-old was of the opinion that the former world number one had too much talent and too much at stake to be involved in such things.

"Iga Swiatek tested negative at the Olympics and the U.S. Open—two of the biggest events on her calendar," he wrote. "She is worth tens of millions of dollars, and such a risk over an alleged doping incident seems irrational. She is introverted and averse to conflict. At just 23, she has so much potential ahead of her. If she were to intentionally cheat—taking what is described as a 'vanishingly small amount' of an angina drug during Cincinnati—it would defy not just moral boundaries but would also be wildly inconsistent with logical behavior."

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However, Wertheim also admitted in the same article that sports is not 100 clean but suggested an interesting way to deal with such developments in the near future. "It's naive to say that any sport is 100% clean,” he wrote. “This contradicts what we know regarding incentives and behavior patterns in sports. If we accept that rationality drives behavior, we must also recognize that it works against the use of performance-enhancing drugs."