As tennis continues to reel from Iga Swiatek doping row, insider revisits Lance Armstrong's "unfathomable moral bankruptcy"

A prominent tennis insider recently answered questions related to Iga Swiatek's doping controversy, the second high-profile tennis player to test positive for a banned substance in 2024. One of the insider's answers also touched on Lance Armstrong, who infamously confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs to triumph at the Tour de France for seven straight years.

Recently, tennis insider Jon Wertheim answered fans' questions via his 'Tennis Mailbag' column for Sports Illustrated. One question revolved around how tennis athletes who have tested positive for banned substances, including Sinner and Swiatek, are portraying their cases as accidents. The question also asked Wertheim if it's suspicious that tennis as a sport has 'seemingly no dopers'.

To this, Wertheim replied, and the tennis insider's response featured mentions of the disgraced trio of Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones and Tyler Hamilton.

"Seldom does an athlete say, 'Busted. You caught me. I did the crime; I’ll do the time. Guilty as charged. What’s my penalty?' Armstrong not only strenuously denied cheating but filed lawsuits against whistleblowers he knew were telling the truth, an act of almost unfathomable moral bankruptcy. Marion Jones lied under oath. A cyclist’s positive test owed to a vanishing twin," Wertheim wrote.

Wertheim also revisited Maria Sharapova's 2016 doping scandal without naming the Russian. The insider used a cheeky reference to the five-time Major winner's candy brand Sugarpova, clarifying who he was writing about.

"A tennis player took a banned substance to combat a family history of diabetes, never mind that she started a candy line with “sugar” in its name. It’s easy to see how fans—and, maybe more critically, tribunals—grow skeptical and treat every explanation as dog-ate-my-homework nonsense," Wertheim added.

Once-acclaimed road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong fell from grace when he finally confessed to Oprah in 2013 that all his Tour de France victories (from 1995 to 2005 consecutively) were under the influence of performance-enhancing substances. For a long time, Armstrong had denied accusations made by whistleblowers and went as far as to sue them.

Marion Jones, a track-and-field athlete who won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was stripped of her achievements after she confessed to lying about her use of performance-enhancing drugs. She was also among the 20 elite athletes found to have links with the controversial BALCO scandal.

Tyler Hamilton, the disgraced Olympic cycling champion, had conjured up a bizarre story in his defense in the face of doping accusations almost two decades ago. Hamilton maintained that he received foreign stem cells from a twin who died in utero. According to the story, the cells produced subtly different red blood cells. However, he later confessed to deliberate doping violations and was subsequently suspended.

Coming back to tennis, it was revealed ahead of the 2024 US Open that ATP World No. 1 Jannik Sinner had twice tested positive for the prohibited substance Clostebol earlier this year. The tennis world was still coming to terms with developments in the Sinner case when it was announced in the off-season that WTA World No. 2 Iga Swiatek had tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ).

Iga Swiatek received a provisional suspension, but appealed against it, which ultimately led to the Pole accepting a one-month ban.

Iga Swiatek's Cincinnati Open 2024 prize money and ranking points were docked; some perceived her one-month ban as lenient punishment

Iga Swiatek at the 2024 Cincinnati Open (Source: Getty)

The sample that Iga Swiatek had provided, which ultimately tested positive for TMZ, dated back to the period in the buildup to the Cincinnati Open. As a result, the ranking points and the prize money that the Pole earned from her run to the semifinals of the WTA 1000 event were docked.

While Iga Swiatek did receive a one-month ban, several prominent names in the tennis world criticized the treatment of the Pole. For instance, the likes of Nick Kyrgios and Denis Shapovalov felt that a month-long ban was a lenient outcome.

Simona Halep, a former WTA World No. 1 like Swiatek, also vented her frustrations at the situation. Halep suggested that the rules were differently applied to her in the aftermath of her doping revelation back in 2022.