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Dawn Harper-Nelson, who won 2008 Beijing Olympic gold in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, has accepted a three-month ban from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after testing positive for a banned substance.
USADA announced Tuesday that Harper-Nelson tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic, in a random out-of-competition urine sample collected by world governing body IAAF on December 1, 2016.
Harper-Nelson was eliminated in the women’s 100 hurdles semi-finals at the 2016 US Olympic trials.
Harper-Nelson’s period of ineligibility would end just ahead of the US Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 3-5 at Albuquerque, New Mexico, and well before the start of the outdoor season leading into the 2017 IAAF World Championships in August at London, where she took silver in the 100 hurdles at the 2012 Olympics.
“I take full responsibility of my mistake and have fully cooperated with IAAF and USADA in the handling of the matter,” she said in a statement on her Twitter account.
“I have learned a valuable lesson and hope my mistake will serve as a reminder to all athletes to be diligent in thoroughly checking any and all prescribed medications.”
Harper-Nelson, 32, had an investigation of her case, including her medical records, and USADA has accepted Harper-Nelson’s explanation that her positive test was caused by a blood pressure medication she was prescribed by a physician to treat hypertension.
Harper-Nelson further explained that she made efforts to determine if the medication contained prohibited substances, however, due to using partial search terms, those efforts were unsuccessful.
“Recently I was rushed to the emergency room where I was diagnosed with high blood pressure,” Harper-Nelson wrote in a statement on her Twitter account.
“As a result, my physician prescribed a non-performance enhancing medication for high blood pressure that contained Hydrochlorothiazide, water pill.
“I never hid my use of this required medication, but did fail to fully understand how its administration was governed by current doping protocols.”
