Two Year Ban For Olympic Swimmer

Swimming isn’t necessarily a summer sport and for Canada’s Olympic Athletes it’s a year round training which is necessary if they are wanting to keep their Olympic dream alive.

Testing for all Olympic Athletes is done on a regular basis that many or some question which in part is due to the overall regulations of some of the specific drugs that many question the IOC on this matter.

To many it sounds logical and this can also be said about over the counter drugs purchased by Families – yours or mine.

Now we are hearing that Canada’s most decorated female Olympic swimmer Penny Oleksiak (25) has been given and accepted a two-year ban from all competition stemming from what is called three whereabouts failures in a timely manner.

Whereabouts failures means that if you don’t submit your whereabouts information quarterly and update it as necessary, or you provide incomplete information, you may receive a whereabouts failure, called a filing failure.

If a doping control officer can’t find you at the location indicated during your 60-minute time slot, you may receive a different kind of whereabouts failure, called a missed test.

Any combination of three whereabouts failures (filing failures and/or missed tests) in a 12-month period, applied by either the CCES or your international federation, may result in an anti-doping rule violation.

Registered Testing Pool (RTP) athletes must keep their whereabouts information up to date!

Her period of ineligibility or time line extends until July 14, 2027 that has the ban applied dating back to this July 15, 2025.

The Aquatics Integrity Unit’s press release mentions that any competitive results from June 16 onward  are disqualified which  include forfeiture of any points,  medals as well as any prizes she may have received.

Athlete whereabouts is part of the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) drug testing program. Selected athletes must provide a daily 60-minute availability window, 90 days in advance, to be tested, no matter where in the world they might be. 

If an athlete submits “late, inaccurate or incomplete whereabouts that lead to them being unavailable for testing, [they] may receive a Filing Failure,” according to World Aquatics. 

In July, after withdrawing from the world aquatics championships due to the whereabouts issue, Oleksiak said 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 combination of three filing failures or missed tests within 12-months could result 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 executive officer Suzanne Paulins said in a statement. “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 national team and hope to see her back in the pool when she is eligible.”

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