The U.S. Anti-Doping agency revealed on Tuesday that Raven Saunders was issued a 30-month suspension for accruing three whereabouts failures in 12 months.
According to USADA, Saunders was part of the Registered Testing Pool, which is a group of athletes who must provide their location in the event they are called to take a drug test. Saunders, 29, was subject to being tested event during periods of non-competition and racked up three whereabouts failures on April, May and December 2024.
Saunders has accepted the sanction and will serve the 30-month ban, which began on December 26, 2024, immediately at the point of the third missed testing session. All results Saunders accrued since that point will be disqualified and any medals, prizes and points will be forfeited.
Tuesday’s announcement marks the second time Saunders has been suspended for whereabouts failures — with three missed tests in 2023. In that instance, they triggered the violations after failing to be present in the first on dates in January, May and August 2022.
The 2023 ban resulted in an 18-month suspension which was also for out-of-competition testing.
Saunders, who mostly competes wearing a mask and sunglasses, emerged as breakout talent in the shot put in 2014 at the USATF Junior Olympics and made a pair of Olympic teams at the Tokyo Games in 2021, winning silver, and Paris in 2024.
At the Tokyo Olympics, on August 1, 2021, Saunders made a gesture on the podium at the medal ceremony by raising their arms up to form an “X” which symbolized the “intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.” Shortly after, the International Olympic Committee launched an investigation to determine if any Olympic rules were broken since athletes are restricted from participating in demonstrations involving politics, religion or “racial propaganda” at any venue where the Games are held.
The investigation surrounding the gesture was dropped three days later after it was revealed that Saunders’ mother died while attending a Team USA families watch event on August 3.
