“Need to wait 30 minutes for peeing,” Iga Swiatek makes ‘stressful’ admission after living ‘through the worst’ as she recalls doping scandal

World No. 2 Iga Swiatek got embroiled in doping controversy when she consumed contaminated melatonin medication.

“Need to wait 30 minutes for peeing,” Iga Swiatek makes ‘stressful’ admission after living ‘through the worst’ as she recalls doping scandal

Iga Swiatek (Image via X)

Iga Swiatek suffered a huge setback in August last year. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) informed her about failing a drug test and as a consequence, she missed three tournaments and faced a one-month ban.

Recently Swiatek, in the Tennis Insider Club podcast, discussed the anti-doping process with Caroline Garcia and her fiance Borja Duran. As players have to provide samples whenever asked, Swiatek explained why living in such a system is not easy.

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It’s not easy to have to live in this system anyway, like waking up and having these time slots, in your whereabouts and knowing that, well, I need to wait 30 minutes for peeing because I don’t know if I’m going to have a doping control or…everything is stressful, you know?

Iga Swiatek said

The 23-year-old had the banned drug trimetazidine in her sample, which entered her body because of consuming a contaminated melatonin medication. Swiatek however believes that she can ‘survive everything’ after avoiding the harsh punishment that players have faced before in spite of unintentional doping.

And like leaving your ringtone always on during the night, even though somebody is texting and you can’t sleep, but you need to leave it on because maybe at 5 a.m. they’ll come you know…but, like I think I lived through the worst… kind of worst-case scenario.

Iga Swiatek added

Iga Swiatek said due to her father she ended up playing tennis

During the Tennis Insider Club podcast, Iga Swiatek was asked how she started to play tennis. The Pole recalled how father Tomasz Swiatek always pushed her to pursue an individual sport.

Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek (Image via X)

Tomasz was part of the rowing team that competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Poland finished seventh in the race and because of the disappointing result, Tomasz never wanted his daughter to play team sports. The five-time Grand Slam champion even tried swimming but she was ‘scared’ of water and was ‘kicked out of the team’.

For example, he was at the Olympics, but he was on the team. They were rowing in a four-person boat. He always had to rely on somebody, that’s why he chose tennis for us. We also tried swimming, but I was scared of water. I was kicked out of the team.

Iga Swiatek said

Swiatek will now be chasing her first Australian Open when the tournament begins on January 12. To prepare for the Grand Slam event, Swiatek decided to represent Poland at the United Cup by skipping the Brisbane International and the ASB Classic.

Her matches helped Poland reach back-to-back finals but they were defeated by Team USA. Coco Gauff beat Swiatek in the women’s singles after which, Taylor Fritz overcame Hubert Hurkacz in men’s singles.