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.
