USA Olympic runner-up Saunders gets 30-month whereabouts ban

Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Raven Saunders, women’s shot put runner-up at the Tokyo Olympics, has accepted a 30-month ban for three “whereabouts” failures within 12 months, the US Anti-Doping Agency announced on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old American was fifth at the 2016 Rio Olympics before capturing a silver medal in Japan and placing 11th in last year’s Paris Olympics. Saunders was part of the US registered testing pool when she incurred three failures to allow testing officials to know a location for random doping tests. The failures took place on April 19, 2024, May 17, 2024, and December 26, 2024.

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The period of ineligibility for first whereabouts rule violations ranges from one to two years, but this was the second rule violation for Saunders, and USADA determined that a 30-month period of ineligibility was appropriate.

Saunders served an 18-month ban for three whereabouts failures from August 2022 to February 2024. The latest 30-month ban began on December 26, 2024, and Saunders was disqualified from all competitive results since then.

© 2024 AFP