Penny Oleksiak banned from competitors till 2027 after accepting penalty for whereabouts failures

Swimmer Penny Oleksiak, Canada’s most embellished feminine Olympian, has accepted a two-year ban from competitors stemming from three whereabouts failures.

Oleksiak’s interval of ineligibility extends to July 14, 2027, with the ban utilized retroactively to this previous July 15.

According to a launch from the Aquatics Integrity Unit, the 25-year-old from Toronto can have any aggressive outcomes from June 16 onward disqualified, together with forfeiture of medals, factors, and prizes.

Athlete whereabouts is a part of the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) drug testing program. Selected athletes should present a day by day 60-minute availability window, 90 days upfront, to be examined, irrespective of the place on this planet they may be. If an athlete submits “late, inaccurate or incomplete whereabouts that lead to them being unavailable for testing, [they] may receive a Filing Failure,” in line with World Aquatics. 

In July, after withdrawing from the world aquatics championships as a result of whereabouts situation, Oleksiak stated the matter “does not involve any banned substance” and added, “I am and always have been a clean athlete and will be making no further comment at this time.”

Any mixture of three submitting failures or missed checks inside 12-months may end in a two-year ban.

“We are committed to the enforcement and support of all anti-doping rules as outlined in the Canadian Anti-Doping Program and through World Aquatics and the World Anti-Doping Agency,” Swimming Canada chief government officer Suzanne Paulins stated in a press release. “While we accept Penny’s explanation these were inadvertent errors and she has not used banned substances, anti-doping regulations are in place to ensure a level playing field for all athletes.

“We will miss Penny on the nationwide workforce and hope to see her again within the pool when she is eligible.”

Oleksiak is a seven-time Olympic medallist and nine-time world championship medallist.