Olympic women’s shot put silver medalist Raven Saunders has been suspended for 18 months for not being available for doping tests, the US anti-doping agency said on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old American committed three “failures of whereabouts” within a 12-month period to serve the sentence, which is due to expire in February 2024 and therefore cost him the chance to compete at next year’s Paris Olympics.
Saunders, who has been vocal in raising awareness about social injustice and mental health issues, finished second at the Tokyo Games with an effort of 19.79m.
Her violation occurred while she was in the USADA testing pool and was required to inform officials of her whereabouts so that she could be located for random out-of-competition tests.
Saunders missed tests on January 8, May 26 and August 15 last year. His 18-month ban began with a third infringement and all results from that date were disqualified.