MONACO -- Olympic bronze medalist Alysha Newman was banned for 20 months on Friday for missed drug tests, though track and field investigators accepted she had ended her career as a pole vaulter.
Newman, now aged 31, took bronze for Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympics and last competed at a pair of Diamond League meetings last May in Qatar and Morocco.
The Athletics Integrity Unit said Newman was unavailable for an unannounced doping control in February last year and twice more in August. Three so-called "whereabouts" failures in a 12-month period can be prosecuted as an anti-doping rules violation.
At the third incident, the AIU said in its published verdict the athlete told a sample collection official "she had to leave immediately to participate in the filming of a television game show."
The global anti-doping system requires athletes to specify a one-hour period each day where they will be available to give a sample for testing.
Newman's suspension expires in August 2027 and was less than the standard two years for whereabouts cases because the AIU accepted she decided to end her career.
This, the AIU said, "is a sufficiently unique/exceptional factor that may be considered in assessing her level of fault in the matter."
Newman also competed in two world championships finals, was a gold and bronze medalist at the Commonwealth Games and took bronze at a Pan American Games.
