Romanian judge from CAS tells how the banned substance ended up in Simona Halep’s body

Simona Halep has taken an important step in the context of the Roxadustat doping scandal and is about to prove that the substance entered her body through a contaminated supplement, says a Romanian judge from the CAS,  the Court of Arbitration for Sport based in Lausanne.

Cristian Jura is a Romanian judge of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and he made a major announcement regarding Simona’s situation.

“It seems that the method by which Roxadustat entered the athlete’s body has been identified, namely by ingesting a contaminated food supplement. Contaminated product is a product that contains a prohibited substance, without this being specified on the product label or in information accessible through a reasonable search on the Internet,”  Jura said according to ProSport.

“The athlete is still at this moment between the lifting of the suspension, i.e. the removal of any sanctions, and the 4-year suspension from sports activity.

The suspension can be reduced or even canceled if the two conditions stipulated by the World Anti-Doping Code are cumulatively met: to establish very clearly the way in which the substance entered the body and the athlete’s lack of intention to take the prohibited substance to improve sports performance.

One of the conditions was met, it was clearly established how the substance got into the athlete’s body. The athlete must also prove the lack of guilt and negligence. That is, the athlete or other person must prove that Simona did not know or suspect and could not reasonably have known or suspected, even by exercising the most careful caution, that she used or was administered prohibited substances or that he used prohibited methods,” he also said.

Judge Cristian Jura mentioned that there is though chance that Simona’s suspension will be lifted, taking into account the evidence presented.

“Procedurally, there are several stages. First, there’s a preliminary hearing before the International Tennis Integrity Agency. At this stage it is possible to lift the athlete’s provisional suspension, taking into account the evidence that she ingested a contaminated supplement. But I would make an important clarification. Just as it is possible to lift the provisional suspension, so it can be maintained, very much depends on the evidence.” 

Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep (31 years old, 9 WTA) received a notification that she tested positive for a banned substance, Roxadustat during the US Open 2022.

In October she was provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency after testing positive.