Born in the German-speaking region of Northern Italy Jannik Sinner plays on the night between Friday and Saturday, Finnish time, to reach the finals of the US Open tennis tournament. Sinner is the overwhelming early favorite of the tournament.
His presence in the tournament not pleasing everyone, because an anabolic steroid called clostebol was found twice in the doping samples given by Sinner in March. For the substance group in question, the starting penalty is always a four-year ban from competition.
Supervising tennis ethics and anti-doping IATA lookedthat the number one in the men’s world ranking was completely innocent of what happened. In the answer drawn up by Sinner’s legal team, klostebol, which was developed in the GDR, ended up in the tennis star’s body during a sports massage.
According to the counterpart, Hieroja had sprayed his hands with a preparation containing clostebol in the form of a spray. The preparation prohibited by the anti-doping rules in all situations would thus have ended up in the Italian’s urine samples.
Suek’s medical expert at the Finnish Sports Ethics Center Pekka Rauhala told Urheilu that the described process is not impossible, at least in principle.
Following the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Wada Code, IATA released Sinner from all doping suspicions to continue playing. WADA’s code allows the procedure if the athlete is considered completely unfit for a positive doping sample. Wada has the right to appeal IATA’s decision to CAS, the international appeals body for sports.
Very many doubt that Sinner was actually saved from sanctions by his huge sport, the millions involved and the reputational damage caused by a possible sanction. Sinner reacted to what happened by firing his physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi and his physical trainer by Umberto Ferrara.
Same substance, different athlete
The words klosteboli and doping took the thoughts of many Finns to a completely different athlete and a 104-kilometer drive from Sinner’s birthplace, Innichen. Norwegian skiing star Therese Johaug gave a doping test in Seiser Alm on September 16, 2016, which also contained klostebol.
Johaug received a thirteen-month suspension from the Norwegian national doping process in February 2017, which was extended to one and a half years at the CAS in August 2017 at the request of the International Ski Federation FIS. Johaug missed both the World Championships in Lahti 2017 and the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang 2018.
He ended his career after his three golds at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but plans to return to the Games this season, aiming for the World Championships in Trondheim in the spring and winter.
Many have wondered why the world number one in a small sport and the world number one in a large sport received such different treatment in the cases. On Friday, Urheilu caught up with the lawyer who defended Johaug during the 2016–17 doping process By Christian B. Hjort.
– I have already been asked for my opinion on this matter before. I understand very well that it may raise a lot of questions. The fact is that Therese received a very harsh sentence, Hjort stated.
Hjort said that he learned about Sinner’s case from the media.
“I don’t know if it’s true”
– I have read that it is the same substance, but the possible sanctions are determined by many other things as well. Sinner’s case is explained like this. I don’t know if it’s true, but it would be professionally unethical for me to speculate without evidence of other options.
While IATA considered Sinner completely innocent of what happened, CAS considered Johaug to have carried guilt in his backpack for an 18-month suspension.
Although the then doctor of the Norwegian cross country team Fredrik Bendis admitted that he had gotten Johaug a medicine cream containing clostebol and had given the tube to the athlete, Johaug used the cream on his sunburnt lips himself and ignored the label on the package that warned against doping.
– In the rules, the substance only determines the starting level of the sanction. For anabolic substances, it is four years, but the starting level is always considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on personal culpability. It depends on the subjective assessment of the decision-makers, explains one of Finland’s leading anti-doping lawyers Olli Rauste.
Confirmation of hand cleanliness
The anti-doping rules do not say anything about the fact that the athlete should make sure, for example, that the hands of his masseuse or physiotherapist are clean before the treatment procedure. Hjort states that the issue could at least be considered when the Wada code is revised next time.
He has also become known to Norwegians through sports connections as the former chairman of the International Biathlon Union IBU Anders Besseberg as a defense attorney. In the spring, Besseberg was sentenced to three years and one month in prison. He is not in prison, because the sentence has been appealed to a higher court.
Italy is a klostebol country
The fact that clostebol was found in Jannik Sinner’s sample is not a surprise considering the man’s nationality. Only in the years 2019–23 as many as 38 Italian athletes gave a positive doping sample containing clostebol.
According to Wada’s statistics, even about half of the doping cases related to clostebol are of Italian origin. The sale of products containing Klostebol, such as Trofodermin ointment, which was fatal for Johaug, is allowed in the country.
According to the IATA website as many as 152 tennis players are currently banned to varying degrees due to violations related to anti-doping or sports ethics.
In the recent history of top Italian sports, there is even a harsher attitude towards clostebol than in the case of Sinner. Beach volleyball player Victoria Orsi Toth and sailor Roberto Caputo just before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games gave the samples that contained clostebol. The athletes already selected for the Games received a long sentence: Orsi Toth two years, Caputo 17 months.