Paralympic silver medallist and former World Champion on the track Daphne Schrager has been handed a two year ban for the use of a prohibited substance.
Last year, Schrager provided an out of competition urine sample that was found to contain ligandrol, a drug that has been shown to increase lean muscle mass. The drug is not approved for medical use or human consumption and is prohibited in sport at all times.
However, a tribunal of the National Anti-Doping Panel accepted Schrager’s defence that that she had not intentionally taken the drug but that environmental contamination is what had caused it to be in her system.
Schrager, who won silver in the C1-C3 3000m Individual Pursuit at the Paralympics in Paris 2024, had put forward two possible explanations for why she had tested positive for ligandrol. She suggested it could have been from a massage she got at a gym she had attended two days before the sample was taken. Or that it could have come from a shared household she’d been to.
A selection of scientists appeared before the panel for both UK Anti-Doping and Schrager. There was consensus among the scientists the environmental contamination was the most likely explanation for the concentration of ligandrol in her sample.
While the tribunal concluded Schrager had not done enough to establish exactly where the source of the contamination had come from, she had established that she hadn’t taken the drug intentionally.
That meant she received the shorter two year sanction, not a four year ban that’s given to athletes judged to have intentionally doped.
Her two-year ban is dated from 2 June 2025 and she will next be eligible to compete from 7 June 2027.
Twenty-five year-old Schrager has previously won two World Championships on the track in the C2 and C3 individual pursuit as well as bronze in the road race and silver in the omnium.
She grew up with cerebral palsy and was originally a track athlete before switching to cycling in 2019. She was originally inspired to get into sport by attending the 2012 Paralympics in London.
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