How Halep's suspension was “melted”: behind the scenes of the defense that made Simona's return to tennis possible ANALYSIS

Now, after a first suspension of 4 years, the reduction of the sentence in the case of Halep to one of 9 months seems shocking. But there is an explanation for this huge difference between the two verdicts.

Concretely, at TAS, “Simo”, with the help of lawyers, managed to obtain, first of all, the elimination of the problem related to “biological passport“. With this burden lifted from the Romanian's shoulders, the lawyers dealt with the “contamination“. Which had been rejected by the first court, Sport Resolutions in London. As the TAS judges accepted this scenario, according to which the collagen supplement had traces of Roxadustat, the task of the team led by Howard Jacobs became much easier. In fact, “Adevărul” wrote, as early as August 2023, that the version of “contamination”, if proven in front of a court, will save Simona from a drastic suspension. Which did not happen at Sport Resolutions, but did happen at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

The August 2023 cover in which Adevărul explains: the contamination option will save Halep

The best explanation for the lenient sanction Halep received after the CAS hearings comes from the statements of the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). In the material published exclusively in Romania in August 2023, “Adevărul” took over Travis Tygart's statements. Who said why an athlete who is a victim of contamination cannot be considered a cheater. Here are the American's explanations, with reference to another case of conjunctural contamination, which deserves to be reviewed now, in light of the latest events in the Halep file:

*We are facing another problem now. Namely, the fact that the anti-doping laboratories are so good, so efficient, that they detect extremely small amounts of prohibited substances in the analyzed samples… And our concern is that, sometimes, these detected substances did not reach the athlete's body by their intended use! They ended up being ingested through what we call <>. What do I mean? Contaminated meat, contaminated water, including sexual contact with the partner.

*The cases that really worry us are those of athletes who are not trying to cheat, who are even very careful not to use something prohibited, who do everything by the book. But, for reasons that are not theirs, but the nature of the world we live in today, they end up testing positive for some extremely low values. And then it is very difficult for them to explain the source of this contamination. Such cases create a lot of tension. Because we end up asking ourselves the following question: <>.

*<> is our problem now. We are talking about cases where the element of intention is missing. Such cases should not be punished at the same level as intentional doping, with systematic state-supported doping, as was the case in Russia, for example.

*Now, we are at a stage where we are trying to impose new rules for <>. We are in contact with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and have put this matter on the table. And we are very vocal about it. We want to make sure that there is an appropriate set of rules for every situation and that they are as fair, just rules as possible, that take into account the reality of the world we live in now. Which take into account the contaminations that occur from meat, from water, from vitamins. And we are optimistic that in the near future, following our discussions with WADA, these new rules can be incorporated into the anti-doping code.

Travis Tygart