Canadian anti-doping authorities have suspended Tokyo 2021 Olympic swimmer Ruslan Gaziev for 18 months after the 24-year-old Ohio State graduate registered three “whereabouts failures” last year.
Gaziev’s suspension took effect December 31, 2023, and will last through May 31, 2025. The 2023 Big Ten champion in the 100 freestyle last competed in a dual meet at Notre Dame in January before skipping the 2024 Big Ten Championships, NCAA Championships, and Canadian Olympic Trials over the past few months.
Swimming Canada released a statement on Thursday noting that Gaziev said the whereabouts violations — two missed tests and one filing failure between January and August of 2023 — were unintentional, and that he cooperated with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) after learning of his sanction. According to the CCES, he waived his right to a hearing and accepted his punishment in January.
“We understand that Ruslan did not keep his whereabouts information fully up-to-date and was therefore not available for required testing,” Swimming Canada CEO Suzanne Paulins said. “Ruslan has explained to us that it was inadvertent. Anti-doping regulations are in place to ensure a level playing field for all athletes, and we are committed to the enforcement and support of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program (CADP).
“It is certainly disappointing news for Ruslan, his teammates and all of us at Swimming Canada who know how hard he has worked over the years to compete at the international level,” Paulins added. “Athletes are responsible for completing whereabouts and submitting filings on time to avoid a sanction such as this. We hope this incident will serve as a reminder for all athletes around the need to following the CADP and ensure they are compliant.”
Gaziev arrived at Ohio State in 2018 after placing 6th in the 50 free at the 2017 World Junior Championships. He qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 by virtue of his runner-up finishes in the 100 free (48.81) and 200 free (1:49.45) at Canadian Trials. In Tokyo, he swam in prelims of the 4×100 free relay, where Canada placed 4th in the final.
At the 2022 World Championships, Gaziev won his first Worlds medal thanks to his prelims contribution to Canada’s silver-medal performance in the mixed 4×100 free relay. He earned a bronze medal in the same event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after also swimming a mixed 4×100 free relay prelims leg. Gaziev also won bronze in the men’s 4×100 free relay at the Commonwealth Games and finished 4th in the 100 free individually, just a couple tenths shy of the podium.
Gaziev enjoyed his best collegiate season last year as a senior, winning the Big Ten title in the 100 free (41.38), placing 2nd in the 200 free (1:31.94), and 3rd in the 50 free (19.20). He went on to place 4th in the 100 free (40.98) at the 2023 NCAA Championships. Last summer at the 2023 World Championships, he split 47.58 on the second leg of Canada’s 4×100 free relay that placed 4th (3:23.82) a couple seconds behind Great Britain (3:21.68) for bronze.
It clearly is a kitchen contamination
Yes they do; everyone with two missed tests is aware they’re hanging by a thread
Just does not make sense.
Accidental doping is OK but not telling where you are going to be is not.
Canada didn’t want to pay the “service fee”
If he was Chinese…all good nothing to see here!
Do they send out some sort of warning or alert after each one? Seems really unfair if they dont!
athletes need to make themselves available for testing for 1 hour each day. they give the ADAs
a location and a time, which will be used to locate the athlete for testing on a random day. most people
schedule their whereabouts during a training session. the athlete already knows where they should be for
testing, and at what time
I’m not suggesting this is what happened, but many athletes will use the ‘oh I missed the test’ excuse when they don’t want to fail the test. Either way you get in trouble, but you somewhat hide the fact that you’re doping.
It does make me wonder, though.
Only happened in Ohio!
He will not be returning to the sport following the suspension, per sources close to the situation.
This is sad.
I thought we already knew this, but maybe it was just comment section gossip