Luke Davies
A former Team GB cyclist has slammed the decision regarding Jannik Sinner’s recent doping ban.
Wimbledon champion Sinner, 23, accepted a three-month ban after reaching a settlement with World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) in February 2025 relating to two positive tests in 2024.
Last year, the Italian tested positive for low levels of the metabolite clostebol - a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass.
A further test returned a similar result eight days later. However, Sinner was cleared of any wrongdoing after the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) found the 23-year-old was inadvertently contaminated with the substance by Giacomo Naldi, his physiotherapist.
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As reported by BBC Sport, “Naldi had been applying an over-the-counter spray available in Italy to a cut on his own hand and had then carried out treatments on Sinner”.
Sinner’s ban expired in May and he has since reached the French Open final and won Wimbledon.
On Tuesday, former cyclist Lizzy Banks, who was initially given no ban after failing a drugs test in 2023, admitted that seeing Sinner compete at Wimbledon was “difficult” given the similar nature of their cases.
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In her case with UK Anti-Doping, Banks, 34, was cleared of wrongdoing despite traces of chlortalidone and formoterol being found in her system after a routine urine test.
However, Wada refused to accept Ukad’s ruling and the opinion of expert witness Professor David Cowan.
Wada took the case to Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and a two-year ban was upheld – minus the nine months and 29 days official period of provisional suspension she has already served.
In an interview with The Times published on Tuesday, Banks explained how her life, career and health have been ruined.
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“I can’t tell you how difficult it was to watch Wimbledon this year. I watched the men’s final and I didn’t expect it to hit me like that, I was so upset,” she said.
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“I want to make it clear that I don’t think Jannik Sinner purposely took anything. He was given his zero-month sanction, like I was. It was appealed to CAS, like mine was. And then he got the most handy time, a three-month sanction, and then he was able to just go straight back to it.
“I was never even offered a deal, but I wouldn’t have taken it anyway.
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“Then they came out and said this case is a million miles from doping. Well, how does that make me feel? Just because I’m little old me and nobody cares about me I have to go through hell, and he gets to go and win Wimbledon.”
In a statement, relayed by Banks in a blog, WADA stated: “The Athlete has not identified a specific product taken by her which would even potentially be the source of the chlortalidone. Based on this fact alone, the Athlete cannot have been found to have discharged her burden of proof that there was No (Significant) Fault or Negligence.”