CAS Arbitrator upholds four-year sanction on Stirley Jones

The Paralympic Track and Field Athlete was booked for Doping Violation 17 Dec 2019
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By USADA

Colorado Springs, Colo.: USADA announced today that an independent arbitrator with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rendered a decision in the case of Paralympic track and field athlete Stirley Jones, of San Clemente, Calif., and has determined that Jones’ four-year sanction imposed by an independent American Arbitration Association (AAA) panel should be upheld.

Jones, 35, tested positive for a metabolite of stanozolol, 3’‐hydroxystanozolol, as the result of an out of competition urine sample he provided on 2 October, 2018.

Stirley Jones

Stanozolol is a non-Specified Substance in the class of Anabolic Agents and prohibited at all times under the USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee National Anti-Doping Policies, and the International Paralympic Committee Anti-Doping Code, all of which have adopted the World Anti- Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List.

The CAS arbitrator supported the AAA panel’s conclusion that Jones did not establish that the ingestion of the stanozolol was unintentional. During the CAS hearing, Jones presented new evidence, which the arbitrator determined was “uncorroborated and inauthentic.”

In regard to Jones’ position, the arbitrator also noted that he “advanced inaccurate and misleading procedural arguments by withholding information…Whether an intentional act of gamesmanship or not, such actions cannot be tolerated in this procedure.”

Hopefully this is a firm reminder that the due process afforded is a search for the truth, not a process that can be manipulated while wasting limited and precious resources that detract further detract from clean athletes.

Jones’ four-year period of ineligibility began on 17 October, 2018, the date he received a provisional suspension.