'I know I'm clean': Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep opens up about doping scandal

euronews (in English)

Euronews caught up with former world number one tennis star Simona Halep, as she awaits the findings from the Court of Arbitration for Sport over a doping scandal which she admits could spell the end of her illustrious career.

Transcript

00:00 Simona Halep has climbed to the top of world tennis winning two Grand Slam

00:04 titles along the way but now she faces the biggest battle of her life after

00:09 having been found guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs.

00:15 It's been quite a year for you, a year out of the game. Describe to me if you

00:22 can what's your state of mind right now? Well it's been actually more than one

00:27 year already and every day it felt like very painful, very emotional, hurtful

00:33 because I know I didn't do anything wrong and I know I'm clean so it was a

00:38 shock when I received the letter that my urine test, only the urine test, came out

00:44 positive with actually an extremely low quantity of substance, banned substance.

00:49 I've been always against doping and you know I've been loud as well about this

00:56 so didn't even cross my mind in my whole life to do something like this so it was

01:02 a shock. I struggled with the emotional part because it's been very heavy on my

01:08 shoulders and seeing this so much public it was really affected my my mental

01:14 health for sure. You've received an enormous amount of support online, not

01:20 surprisingly because you're one of the world's most popular sports stars but

01:25 also a lot of detractors as well. Have you reacted to that? Well the support has

01:31 been amazing. The fans were supporting me unconditional which means a lot, means

01:36 huge to see the people even if I face the worst moment in my life as an athlete

01:42 I know I'm clean. I received tons of messages, good messages and the biggest

01:49 thing is that I never faced a person who tells me something negative so all of

01:54 them were positive and this gave me the strength to keep fighting every day to

01:59 clear my name and to show that I didn't do anything wrong. The players also which

02:05 are opponents they also showed their support and I really appreciate it

02:10 because it means a lot. We are fighting on court and when you are in the worst

02:14 situation they are there and they support you. Also the legends, I had such

02:20 a big support from from legends in tennis and they were also publicly

02:24 spoken about me and this means a lot. They were supporting me full and it's

02:29 it's great, it's huge, everything helps me to stay strong in these difficult times

02:36 and to fight to clear my name. We've had also the International Tennis

02:42 Integration Agency say that you know three different panels of experts have

02:46 said that you intentionally took this performance-enhancing drug. What's

02:51 going to be your defense? Well yeah they said that but it's very clear that it

02:57 was a contamination. Three days before the positive urine test I was negative

03:02 blood and urine so I've been told at the beginning that it's a very it's

03:06 extremely low quantity of this substance, banned substance and in those three days

03:11 I could not have doped. It was not my intention and never has been the

03:17 intention to to do something wrong or something disrespectful to this sport

03:22 because I have respected everything and I dedicated my life. My principles are

03:27 not like this so I didn't think to cheat in tennis. The two things that the

03:34 contamination I think it's very strong for me and the second one the blood I

03:39 had many many tests and all of them were negative so they never found anything

03:45 wrong in my in my blood so with these two things I feel confident going and

03:51 facing tests. Do you trust the process though? Yeah I think it's way too long to

03:55 wait for an athlete, professional athlete. I accepted I had nothing to do against

03:59 this and now I'm looking forward in February and finally I will have the

04:03 final decision. Some of the criticisms that have been leveled against you and

04:08 some of those have also come against your team as well. Patrick Morotoglu

04:13 perhaps the most high-profile tennis coach in the world. He's come out now in

04:20 the last month and said he's admitted responsibility saying yes our team got

04:24 it wrong. You did have this contaminated collagen. What's the relationship like

04:28 between you and him now? It's true that he went out. I wish he could have done

04:32 that a little bit earlier. I have stopped working with with the Academy since a

04:38 while already. I'm just you know when I found myself in this situation it was

04:45 difficult to manage because I have always trusted in my teams, previous

04:50 teams and everybody that I work with because I felt like trusting you have a

04:55 better chance to perform at your maximum and I always been open to learn from

05:00 people that's why you hire people because you need information, you need

05:04 to be better. So I always trusted this and my trust is broken a little bit

05:09 right now and in the future I don't know how it's gonna be if I can trust again

05:15 and probably I have to learn because this is my principle in life. If you hire

05:20 somebody and you work with that person you have to trust. Sure and when's the

05:24 last time you two spoke? Not very soon like a few months ago. If the Court of

05:31 Arbitration does the decision goes against you will this effectively be the

05:35 end of your career? I think so yeah because four years it's gonna be a lot

05:41 for my age at least and for an athlete that has done 25 years every day this

05:47 thing and dedicate the life for tennis and for sport I don't know how

05:54 it's gonna be but it's catastrophic if it's gonna be four years and I don't

06:00 know how I will handle it probably is gonna be end of career yes and for

06:05 something that I didn't do and that is not my fault it's even more catastrophic.

06:10 Well you remain a national hero in your native Romania and beyond for sure you

06:17 know lots of people are going to be watching this interview young people

06:20 are going to be watching this interview what message would you have for them?

06:23 Well for the kids the only thing I can say is that they have to dream big I

06:30 think this is the most important thing to visualize yourself with the big

06:34 trophies of course you never know what is gonna happen in life but if you

06:39 dedicate yourself to sport if you are disciplined if you work hard and if you

06:45 have the passion the big passion for this sport I think you are able one day

06:50 to lift those trophies I did this and I can share this with them they have to

06:56 have the courage to trust their selves and to go forward I know some days are

07:01 difficult because you don't feel like going there you feel tired you feel

07:05 exhausted you feel depressed sometimes but if you push yourself and you go on

07:10 court in those days the step is huge and I wish them good luck and to trust in

07:16 their selves to have the confidence inside them.

07:19 Now before I let you go if we do look ahead into the future and the ruling

07:24 from the Court of Arbitration for sport is positive in your favor will you be

07:28 back here in Paris perhaps for the Olympics?

07:30 Of course this is my dream I know there are not big chances for this but I'm

07:36 dreaming of this because Paris is my dream city I'm one Roland Garros here

07:40 when I was junior so everything started very early and it will be amazing to be

07:46 back on court no matter what but I just want to be on court because there I

07:50 belong and I feel like I want to do it again.

07:54 Samona Hanab thank you for this interview.

07:56 Thank you too for listening and for talking to me.

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