LOS ANGELES: Raven Saunders, women’s shot put runner-up at the Tokyo Olympics, has accepted a 30-month ban for three “whereabouts” failures within 12 months, the US Anti-Doping Agency announced on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old American was fifth at the 2016 Rio Olympics before capturing a silver medal in Japan and placing 11th in last year’s Paris Olympics.

Saunders was part of the US registered testing pool when incurred three failures to allow testing officials to know a location to allow for random doping tests, the failures taking place on April 19, 2024, May 17, 2024, and Dec 26, 2024.

The period of ineligibility for first whereabouts rule violations ranges from one to two years, but this was the second rule violation for Saunders and USADA determined a 30-month period of ineligibility was appropriate.

Saunders served an 18-month ban for three whereabouts failures from August 2022 to February 2024.

The latest 30-month ban began on Dec 26, 2024, and Saunders was disqualified from all competitive results since then.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2025