Kanak Jha, the U.S.’ highest-ranked singles table tennis player, was given a backdated one-year ban for missing drug tests.
Jha, No. 23 in the world, was banned for missing three drug tests last year: March 18, June 2 and Sept. 4.
Athletes in Olympic sports face bans if they miss three drug tests in a 12-month span.
Jha, a two-time Olympian who has never tested positive for a banned substance, was given a reduced ban of one year, backdated to last Dec. 1, the date his provisional suspension was imposed.
First-time bans for missed drug tests can be as long as two years, but Jha was deemed by an arbitrator to have a light amount of fault and wasn’t trying to evade testing.
Jha disputed his third missed test, hoping it would be thrown out to avoid a ban.
During his one-hour testing window on Sept. 4, he was not present at the German address he listed on his doping-control forms, though he was at a nearby address.
The drug tester attempted to call Jha before his one-hour testing window was up, but the call did not go through as the tester did not dial the "+1" country code for a U.S. phone. Jha did not include the country code on his contact information and testified that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency never informed that he had to list a country code.
However, drug testers are not required to call athletes who do not answer their doors for random, out-of-competition tests.
Jha, who in 2016 became the first American born in the 2000s to qualify for an Olympics, lost his opening match in singles at the Rio and Tokyo Games.
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