The doping controversy involving Simona Halep, the two-time Grand Slam champion, has shocked the tennis world.
As it all unfolded since August ’22..
August 29, 2022
Halep is competing in the US Open. Unknown to her at the time, this tournament would later become the centre of her doping controversy.
October 21, 2022
Authorities provisionally suspend Halep after testing positive for Roxadustat, a prohibited substance considered a blood doping agent.
Simona Halep denies the charges on Instagram and suggests she has been a “victim of contamination”.
April 28, 2023
In one of her first interviews on the case, Halep says she feels frustrated with the time it is taking to resolve her case. At that moment, Halep’s case is the most prominent since Maria Sharapova. Our special report includes a comparison between Halep and the Sharapova doping case.
May 19, 2023
The doping case deepens. Irregularities in Simona Halep’s athlete biological passport lead the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) handing out a second doping offence to the Romanian.
Nicole Sapstead, ITIA’s anti-doping director, says the announcement today makes a complicated situation even more high-profile. “From the outset of this process – and indeed any other at the ITIA – we have remained committed to engaging with Ms Halep in an empathetic, efficient and timely manner.”
September 12, 2023
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announces that an independent tribunal has suspended Halep for four years for doping.
Halep expresses she is shocked. Halep adds that she wants to get the chance to prove her innocence.
September 15, 2023
The officials release the written reasons behind Halep’s ban. The 125-page report concludes that Halep took a contaminated collagen supplement with Roxadustat. But it also found that there was another source of Roxadustat in the sample given by Halep at the US Open.
The ITIA thinks Simona Halep used blood doping starting in March 2022 after studying 51 of her blood samples. They also added that they had strong grounds for this suspicion, but could not prove it conclusively. ITIA said it lacked the blood values from the athlete between 27 April and the start of Wimbledon 2022.
Halep fiercely responds in a video that she “never doped”. She adds in statement: “I am continuing to train and do everything in my power to clear my name of these false allegations.”
February 7, 2024
Halep goes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, to challenge her four-year ban. Tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou also appears. He tells the judges that his team provided the supplements to Simona Halep and pleads her innocence.
February 9, 2024
After almost three full days in the hearing, Halep leaves the court. She remains unsure when she will know if she has won her appeal against the four-year ban.
Today on February 26, 2024
Three judges are now almost into their third week of considering their final verdict after all hearings.
Conclusion
The Court of Arbitration for Sport decision will have significant implications for Halep’s career and the sport of tennis as a whole.
