Tennis has known its fair share of controversies in the past but 2020 proved to be quite eventful so far. We had the Margaret Court controversy and we've had some drug policy violations as well. Robert Farah tested positive for Boldenone on October 17. It was a curious result because he tested negative just a couple of weeks prior to that.
It came as a shock to the player's himself because he was a model pro all his career and never came close to testing positive for anything. The Colombian Olympic Committee backed the player referencing their statement from 2018. In it, they spoke about the possibility of their athletes testing positive for Boldenone. It was known to them that the substance was widely used in the farming industry in the country.
The story is now concluded as the player was given permission to compete again after his explanation of how the substance entered his system was accepted by the ITF. ITF initially suspended Farah on January 21.
The player came out with a statement where he thanked everybody in the community who supported him during the process. In it he said:
"I want to thank my family, my partner Sebas, my entire team, my sponsors Colsanitas, Mizuno, Hublot, Peugeot and Babolat, and all my friends and fans in Colombia and around the world that have supported me during this trying time to prove my innocence."
The statement gave a full explanation of how the ITF conducted their search and it also highlights in detail how the process unfolded. You can read the full statement below.
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