Mikael Ymer’s published doping verdict shows that the tennis player reported his whereabouts incorrectly to the doping inspectors several times and accused the manager of his own mistake.
Sweden’s best tennis player in recent years Mikael Ymerin extraordinary twists and turns have been revealed in the doping scandal. The 24-year-old Swede was sentenced in mid-July to an 18-month suspension for violating anti-doping rules. The verdict was the result of Ymer falsely reporting his location to dope testers three times during the year.
Now the International Court of Appeal for Sports (CAS) has set Ymer’s sentence to the public.
The document reveals that Ymer’s first missed test took place in April 2021. At that time, Ymer informed the doping testers that he was watching tennis in Barcelona, although in reality he traveled to Ethiopia.
The second case is from August 2021, when Ymer was not at home when the testers arrived. He said afterwards that he was taking care of his brother who suddenly fell ill. Ymer’s brother in reality Elias Ymer played that day in a tennis tournament in Finland.
The critical third time was in November 2021. Ymer participated in a tennis tournament in Roanne, France, and he had announced that he was at his hotel. When the doping testers arrived, it became clear that Ymer had not checked in at the hotel he had indicated. Afterwards, he blamed his manager Marijn Balia that he had not informed the doping supervisors about the change of hotel.
At no point was Ymer accused of using doping.
During the investigation, Ymer and his teams tried to influence the handling of the case. The Swede’s supporters wanted to change the chairman of the jury Romano Subiottowho had also been passing the verdict, the Norwegian skiing star For Therese Johaug. Subiotto had also previously handled cases for the International Tennis Federation (ITF), with whom the Swede was at odds due to his accusation.
– That’s why we didn’t think it was appropriate for Subiotto to act as chairman of Ymer’s legal team Manfred Löfvenhaft said for Aftonbladet.
Ymer was initially acquitted, but after an appeal by the ITF, the CAS took up the case again and set the verdict.
At the end of August, Ymer announced that he would end his professional career. He was ranked 51st in the world.
Now the best-placed Swede in the men’s world list is Elias Ymer at number 170. The best Swede in the women’s is Rebecca Petersonranked 86th.
Wimbledon, played at the turn of June-July, was Ymer’s last tournament. He advanced to the third round of the tournament.