Tara Moore will be banned from playing until the start of the 2028 season
British tennis player Tara Moore has been handed a four-year ban for a doping offense, overturning a previous ruling by an independent tribunal that cleared her 18 months prior.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency’s (ITIA) appeal was successfully upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
The ban is effective immediately, with a reduction of 19 months to account for the provisional suspension Moore served when the case initially emerged.
Moore, 32, held the top British ranking in women’s doubles when she was provisionally suspended in May 2022, after testing positive for nandrolone and boldenone at a tournament in Bogota, Colombia, the previous month.
However, in December 2023, an independent tribunal determined that contaminated meat was the source of the positive test, concluding that Moore was “without fault or negligence.”
Moore stated that she had endured “19 months of lost time and emotional distress,” and that her reputation had been damaged as a result of the proceedings.
She returned to professional tennis in April 2024, primarily competing on the ITF World Tour since then.
While earnings for doubles players are often modest, Moore successfully qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon and the US Open last year, and at the Australian Open this past January.
Following a hearing in March, the Cas ruling stipulates that she will be ineligible to compete until the beginning of the 2028 season.
“After reviewing the scientific and legal evidence, the majority of the Cas panel considered that the player did not succeed in proving that the concentration of nandrolone in her sample was consistent with the ingestion of contaminated meat,” Cas said in a statement.
“The panel concluded that Ms. Moore failed to establish that the ADRV (Anti-Doping Rule Violation) was not intentional. The appeal by the ITIA is therefore upheld and the decision rendered by the Independent Tribunal is set aside.”
Barring an unusual procedural appeal to the Swiss courts, the Cas decision is considered binding on all involved parties.
“For the ITIA, every case is considered according to the individual facts and circumstances,” stated ITIA chief executive Karen Moorhouse.
“Our bar for appealing a first instance decision is high, and the decision is not taken lightly.
“In this case, our independent scientific advice was that the player did not adequately explain the high level of nandrolone present in their sample. Today’s ruling is consistent with this position.
“We understand that players and their support teams may have questions about this decision, and we will answer these fully once we have reviewed the details of the ruling.”
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