Banned substance could have entered disqualified tennis player’s body Simona Halep thanks to collagen powder produced in China, reported the director of the Garches laboratory, expert at the Supreme Court of France, Professor Jean-Claude Alvarez.
On Tuesday, it was announced that Halep, 31, had been suspended for four years. The Romanian was found guilty of using the banned drug roxadustat during the US Open 2022. The second charge was related to discrepancies in the indicators of the athlete’s biological passport.
— Halep came to the laboratory, I took a hair sample from her. There was a very low level of (an illegal substance) in his hair, less than 0.5 picograms per milligram. Then I turned to the only patient treated with roxadustat in France [три раза в неделю при почечной недостаточности]and I tested it: its concentration was 50 picograms per milligram.
The same indicators [как у Халеп] you may get them if you take dietary supplements. This all makes no sense.
We are now condemning an innocent woman. We are making a mistake. Given the concentration found in the hair, it is impossible for him to take roxadustat effectively,” Sportskeeda quoted Alvarez as saying, citing L’Equipe.
However, Alvarez confirmed that the roxadustat found in Halep’s samples “was derived from a supplement used to strengthen bones and increase muscle mass.”
Halep topped the WTA rankings for 64 weeks. She has won two Grand Slam singles tournaments: the 2018 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon. In total, the Romanian has 24 titles in WTA tournaments.
Source : MatchTV
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
