Swimming - FINA World Championships - Budapest, Hungary - June 20, 2022 Canada's Penny Oleksiak reacts after qualifying during the women's 200m freestyle, heat 3 REUTERS/Antonio Bronic
(Reuters) -Penny Oleksiak, Canada's most decorated female Olympian, has accepted a two-year suspension for a breach of the anti-doping code by committing three whereabouts failures over a 12-month span, the International Testing Agency said on Tuesday.
The 2016 Olympic 100 metres freestyle champion's period of ineligibility extends to July 14, 2027 and the ITA said any competitive results obtained from June 16, 2025 onward are disqualified, including forfeiture of medals, points, and prizes.
Swimming Canada said in a statement that it respects the ITA's decision to impose a two-year suspension on Oleksiak and that it supports the enforcement of anti-doping rules as outlined in the Canadian Anti-Doping Program and through World Aquatics and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
"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," said Swimming Canada CEO Suzanne Paulins.
"We will miss Penny on the national team and hope to see her back in the pool when she is eligible."
The agency that represents Oleksiak did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters for a comment from the25-year-old swimmer.
Whereabouts protocol requires an athlete to inform anti-doping authorities where they will be for at least one hour every day for unannounced out-of-competition testing, and bans for whereabouts failures can range from one to two years.
In July, Oleksiak pulled out of the World Championships that started later that month because of a probe into an alleged breach of the anti-doping code under the whereabouts rule.
In announcing her decision, Oleksiak stressed the issue did not involve any banned substances and that it was about "whether I updated my information correctly."
At the time, Swimming Canada released a statement supporting Oleksiak's move, saying they believed she was a clean athlete who had made an "administrative mistake".
As well as taking the sprint gold at Rio as a 16-year-old in 2016, Oleksiak has won six other Olympic medals and nine at three World Championships.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in TorontoEditing by Christian Radnedge)
