EAnother case linked to doping that taints the world of sport. This time it’s about tennis. According to Daily Mail, some tennis players have recently been able to book their doping control slots up to four days in advance. Only the best players would have been “offered” this possibility. This process, which would have been put in place this season before the Masters 1000 in Miami, but also on the sidelines of Roland-Garros in 2019 and the US Open in 2021, could have led to cheating, according to experts.
According to Rob Parisotto, an Australian scientist and doping expert (he performed the first-ever test for EPO), said in the Daily Mail “The fact that the controls are known in advance makes a big difference in blood doping. Three or four days before a tournament is the ideal period to recharge your blood volume and maximize its capacity to transport oxygen, to improve your endurance and your recovery capacities. »
ITF accused of inflating doping test figures
In his article, the Daily Mail advances as proof a message, received by certain players, in which Nicole Sapstead, director of the ITIA (anti-doping program of the international tennis federation), specifies the dates of the anti-doping controls and the slots during which the biological passports of the athletes ( PBA) will be harvested.
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The British investigation does not stop there. The ITF (International Tennis Federation) is also accused of having inflated its figures concerning the doping controls it carries out, unexpectedly or not. According to Daily Mail, some data published by the ITF seem “misleading”. “I have always been suspicious of federations that base themselves on the number of tests carried out rather than targeting the players most at risk,” said Dick Pound, former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency. (AMA).
As a reminder, the AMA specifies in its code of ethics that “except in exceptional and justifiable circumstances, no notice will be given for the collection of samples”.
