British tennis player Tara Moore has been handed a four-year anti-doping sanction despite previously being cleared of any wrongdoing. Moore, 32, was provisionally suspended after testing positive for the anabolic steroids boldenone and nandrolone following a tournament in Colombia in April 2022. An independent tribunal 19 months later ruled that Moore bore no fault or negligence in December 2023 before the The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) appealed that decision with the Court of
Moore, 32, was provisionally suspended after testing positive for the anabolic steroids boldenone and nandrolone following a tournament in Colombia in April 2022.
An independent tribunal 19 months later ruled that Moore bore no fault or negligence in December 2023 before the The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) appealed that decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
CAS on Tuesday confirmed it has ruled in the ITIA’s favour, upholding its appeal, dismissing a counter-appeal from Moore and imposing on her a four-year ban from the sport, minus time previously served under the provisional suspension.
Moore, previously Britain’s No. 1-ranked doubles player, will now not be eligible to play again until the beginning of the 2028 season.
ITIA chief executive officer Karen Moorhouse said: “For the ITIA, every case is considered according to the individual facts and circumstances.
“Our bar for appealing a first instance decision is high, and the decision is not taken lightly. In this case, our independent scientific advice was that the player did not adequately explain the high level of nandrolone present in their sample. Today’s ruling is consistent with this position.
“We understand that players and their support teams may have questions about this decision, and we will answer these fully once we have reviewed the details of the ruling.”
Moore recorded an adverse analytical finding (AAF) from a sample collected during the Copa Colsanitas tournament in Bogotá in April 2022.
She argued that the presence of boldenone and nandrolone in her sample must have been caused by the consumption of beef and/or pork while in Colombia.
CAS revealed in publishing the verdict on Tuesday that the ITIA filed an appeal against the tribunal’s ruling in January of this year before the appeals were heard in March.
“After reviewing the scientific and legal evidence, the majority of the CAS Panel considered that the player did not succeed in proving that the concentration of nandrolone in her sample was consistent with the ingestion of contaminated meat,” the Court said in a media release publicising the verdict.
“The Panel concluded that Ms Moore failed to establish that the ADRV (anti-doping rule violation) was not intentional. The appeal by the ITIA is therefore upheld and the decision rendered by the independent tribunal is set aside. The cross-appeal filed by Ms Moore was declared inadmissible.”
Doping has been a highly contentious issue for the sport in recent months following the positive tests and subsequent bans served by men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and four-time French Open women’s champion Iga Świątek. Both players went on to win their respective singles titles at Wimbledon last weekend.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women's Tennis
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Category: Tennis
