Olympic gold medallist and US sprinter Randolph Ross has received a three-year suspension for “whereabouts failures” and forging an email to anti-doping authorities, glamsquad reports.
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The two-time NCAA champion from North Carolina A&T will be out of commission until June 30, 2025, the Athletics Integrity Unit announced on Tuesday. This means he won’t be able to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
On the eve of his 400-meter preliminary race at the global track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 16, Ross had been provisionally suspended, almost a month after officials were unable to locate him for a drug test. He had failed to locate himself three times in the previous 12 months.
Ross then gave a copy of an automatic email from the location system that showed he had submitted fresh contact information, but when he was questioned by the AIU officials, he later admitted he had doctored it, the unit said.
He is still the NCAA back-to-back champion as it was established when his ban was announced on Tuesday that his results will not stand starting on June 18.
Although he didn’t participate in the final, Ross earned an Olympic gold medal as a member of the 4x400m team at the Tokyo Games in 2021. He was eliminated in the Tokyo heats of the 400.
His Olympic gold medal and the 4×400 gold medals won by his teammates will stand as they did before his whereabouts failures.