Last month I wrote about world ranked men’s No 1 tennis player Jannik Sinner’s anti-doping violation of August of 2024 (you can read it on our website if you haven’t already). Sinner was given by what many perceived to be a light sentence.
I concluded (after having read the case in full and considered the merits of arguments put forth) that the notion of uniform sanctions on athletes for different doping violations is a fundamentally flawed approach to dispensing justice. It would be akin to giving the same prison term for someone who has murdered someone and someone who has committed manslaughter. Yes, a person killed someone but the circumstances were quite different. One was self defence one was pre meditated.
My experience is that Drug Doping Violations vary considerably in each case whether it be the type of prohibited substance ingested, the level of concentration in the urine sample and the circumstances in which it was ingested. You need to look at each case individually and not as Novak Djokovic remarked :
” It almost seems like you can influence the outcome if you are a top player and have access to the best lawyers…..I have spoken to “several players” in the locker room, not only in the last few days but also in the months before. Most of them are not satisfied with how the whole process has gone and do not think it was fair. Many believe that there was favoritism.”
Understandably Novak as co-founder of The Professional Tennis Players Association needs to be seen to be advocating for his membership but he needs to do more than speak to “several players”. He needs to understand the WADA code acknowledges that defences to the strict liability regime exist for players in order to ensure justice pervails.
https://www.wada-ama.org/en/news/wada-agrees-case-resolution-agreement-case-jannik-sinner