Article by Andrei Crăiţoiu – published on Thursday, April 10, 2025, 12:17 / Updated Thursday, April 10, 2025 12:30
Ion Țiriac (85 years old), former Hocheist and elite tennis player, coach, tournament director, former president of the Romanian Olympic Committee, who also contributed to the creation of the World Doping Agency (WADA), sent to the famous publication. L'equipe a letter entitled “enough is enough”.
The letter of the former great tennisms comes in the context of the doping case of Jannik Sinner, a triple big -grin winner, suspended for three months from the professional circuit, after being detected positively with Clostebol.
The Wada investigation concluded that Sinner had no intention and did not achieve any competitive advantage of the two positive tests, and the decision aroused a wave of negative reactions in the world of tennis, most of them considering that the duration of the sentence is far too short.
Invited to “Ovidiu's friends”, Ion Țiriac spoke at large about dopaj, Simona Halep and the case of Jannik Sinner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl2bhxqjfk
Ion Tiriac: “Samaranch is the number one in the world in my address book, in the sport chapter!”
– Mr. Tiriac, you have recently written an editorial in L'Équipe about Simona Halep.
– It was a big scandal with Halep! A world scandal! Halep was taken as an example by Wada, the World Anti -Doping Agency. At this agency, in the 1990s, as soon as I became president of the Romanian Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samarach (NR JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH) He called me and Mr. Dick Pound, at that time, along with four more people, including the topter, the peak, who was the leader of world football at that time …
– President FIFA.
– and great sponsors, such as Adidas, Coca-Cola and Philips. We, the six, stayed four to five days, I don't remember exactly how much. How to make an agency form, given that the pressure was huge at that time, the pressure of Samarach, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee. I and now I take my hat in front of him. Has changed sport all over the world! Samaranch is the number one in the world in my address book, in the sport chapter!
Juan Antonio Samaranch
– That's right.
– The American Senate, the Brussels, the Germans and so on, all, all, said “doping, doping, doping, doping.” Sport is full of doping, it can not be continued! And they were right. I stayed there with advisers of all kinds, the highest doctors, chemists, everything in this world. And at that time, it was a very simple matter in medicine. They were saying: “Sir, we know what each athlete is.” “We know what to hide his doping.” That I take another product to mask another product.
“Tas? The court which, according to Sydney, for me, is dead!”
– I understand, yes.
– But to find a counter -product for a new product, it takes six months and I need six million. So many tests I have to do … So, as usual, it was just about money, money and money again.
– It was about doing an agency to control all the activity.
– Exactly.
– But it costs a lot.
– It costs today, but the money in sports is trillion, trillion. I stayed for five days, and that one didn't want to give money anymore, that Coca-Cola was already giving enough. “We give a billion, it gets to us, I don't know what, I don't know how.” Adidas again. “Well, brothers, we stay here for five days, we are normal people, we have every work, I do not know what. 25 million. Mr. Vice-President, put them on the table here, I see that no one gives. Governments were giving. Neither the Senate, nor the Brussels gave nothing …” And so I started Wada.
– You were one of the founders.
– Then it happens to us what is happening to us in Sydney. It's okay. Following is Tas, the court that, according to Sydney, for me, is dead!
TAS headquarters
– Why?
– “Well, they took a 65 milliliters test in Răducanu and returned with a hundred! Nurofen was not on the black list of the International Federation … PseudoEfedrina in Nurofen does not change your sports form. Then I was extraordinarily aggressive with my five colleagues there. “It's enough!” So with the article in L'équipe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxfcj4u50m
“This is the black list! Any product, if you touch it, you are positive”
– That's right.
– The most important thing is that when a athlete is positive and is declared positive, it is positive. What reason? Whatever reason! But if he is raped, if I keep five with his mouth and he puts them …?! No, dom'le, it's positive! But, before you get a word, you look at what is positive. Isn't his fault? Wasn't it raped? Isn't this product … even though it is on the list, but in an amount of 0.0 … doesn't they make any difference? And do not condemn him, because he is a punished or positive athlete, that in the sports press you know how everyone explodes, especially with a megastar. Either Ronaldo, or Messi or Sinner …
– I understand.
– “All good and beautiful. The years pass, Pass Athens, as we remember that we were both again. We took enough medals, to have them for 50 years, and Wada changes. Today's laboratories are no longer 25 years. And from the case of Sinner, I went to my head and I said, “Dom'le, it's enough.” What is it about?
Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open 2025 Photo: Imago Images
– Talk to us …
– This is the black list! Any product, if you touch it, you are positive. Even if you touch them a little, you are positivebut we see if it is enough to be, not to be. But in that black list there are products that could help from a therapeutic point of view.
“One milliona in a gram can influence neither performance nor nothing”
– Medical.
– I mean, for a man who has a disease and can be treated therapeutically, Would it be fair to give the man the opportunity to take this disease to take the respective pill, the injection? And here you opened the Pandora's box. From that day, sport is no longer what was before. To give you an example.
– Or is it a black list or right?! Do we negotiate it too?
– That is, for a man who has a disease and who can be treated therapeutically, would it be fair to give the man who has this disease to take from the black list, the injection? And here you opened the Pandora's box. From that day, sport is no longer what was before. To give you an example.
– Right, yes.
– Miram I would … this boy does not know what it is. And he discovers that he is positive with a product, whatever it is, but that he has 0.00000 … so a gram divided 9,000 times! A millionth in a gram can influence neither performance nor anything. “No! The number one in the world. Look what he did!”
– Sure.
– The Sports Ethics Commission says no. I declared it “Clean”. Absolutely free. Wada? Guess what is it?! “No! We are doing Sinner a trial at Tas! It is worth two years, you said it was positive.
– With that very small quantity …
– Stay a little … advised by lawyers, they said, “Wada wants to make a hill with you.” He is a child, even if he is 22 years old. “Wada proposes three months of suspension, from now on, you have no Grand Slam … and ready!” Advised by a lawyer, the boy approved. When you opened the Pandora's box and allowed a sportsman to take from the black list …
