The International Testing Authority (ITA) has handed a 14-month ban to United States diver Scott Lazeroff, which he has accepted.
A 28-year-old who dove collegiately at Auburn, Lazeroff tested positive for the banned substance Methylphenidate. He’ll serve a 14-month ban that started on Nov. 24, 2025 and will conclude on Jan. 24, 2027.
Methylphenidate is often used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Lazeroff declined to request a hearing and agreed to the ban, though he is still able to appeal it to the CAS. The ITA did not publish justification for the reduction of the ban from the standard 14 months.
Any competitive results by Lazeroff since July 27 have been disqualified, which includes his 11th-place performance in the high dive competition (27 meters) at July’s World Championships in Singapore. Lazeroff originally placed 11th with 540.55 points.
After winning the high diving national championship in 2024, Lazeroff was also a finalist at the 2024 World Championships in the event, placing 16th with 286.60 points.
In September, Lazeroff began a tenure on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. He ended up finishing 14th in the overall standings with three points. Gary Hunt of France was the winner with 54 points.
Lazeroff won a high school diving state championship in New York in 2015 before embarking on a successful college career at Auburn.
As a freshman, Lazeroff finished 3rd on the platform at the NCAA championships and participated in the Olympic trials.
He then finished 16th on the platform as a sophomore and 13th on the platform as a junior in 2018.
Lazeroff also finished 2nd on the platform in both 2017 and 2018 at the SEC Championships.
geez seems like just a dude with adhd. pretty harsh punishment
Genuinely not understanding how testing for a banned substance gets only 14 months, but missing 3 whereabouts in a year gets 2 years?
Also, what if a swimmer actually has a diagnosis of ADHD and needs this medication?
The way they get to 14 months isn’t exactly “oh this is the severity of doping, 14 months.”
A positive test starts at 4 years. So if they find “oh yeah you definitely doped on purposes,” you get 4 years. Which is twice as long as a whereabouts filing (for which I believe the standard is 2 years).
If they believe you didn’t dope on purpose, you go to the same 2 years. It’s kind of a weird fuzzy situation because if they believe you didn’t dope on purpose, but you don’t really provide any evidence that you didn’t dope on purpose, you somehow get cut in half.
Then after that, they reduce the 2 years more-or-less by… Read more »
Thank you so much for explaining all this! It sounds like the process is quite subjective, at least as far as the arbitrator is concerned for sentencing.
I imagine the athletes have to be extremely careful of the food they eat when out in public restaurants and protecting their water bottles.
I also wonder about swimmers with conditions like heart issues, POTS, or ADHD, etc. who may require meds but what if those required meds are on a banned list?
Someone sent me photos from the Chinese National Games where all of the coaches were closely guarding their athletes’ water bottles, which was interesting.
In terms of restaurants, etc…it sort of depends where you are. There are parts of the world where livestock are treated with banned substances. USADA put out this memo on the topic: https://www.usada.org/spirit-of-sport/anabolic-agents-meat-contamination/#:~:text=Testing%20positive%20due%20to%20meat,specifically%20from%20liver%20and%20oxtail.
You can get a Therapeutic Use Exemption if its prescribed by a doctor. It’s a pretty simple form you have to fill out: https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/therapeutic-use-exemption/tue-application-form#resource-download
Still don’t really understand this, though: what if someone has a diagnosable condition that requires that medication for treatment?
That’s a whole different situation. In that case, you get a prescription from a doctor and then file a Therapeutic Use Exemption. It’s just a form you have to fill out, and most high level athletes have them.
While doping suspensions aren’t always consistent, usually “I got a legit prescription but forgot/neglected to fill out the paperwork” results in a 6 month suspension: https://swimswam.com/american-junior-casey-tests-positive-suspended-six-months/
Bella Sims’ case was one where a prescription medication that Bella declared and did the paperwork on was contaminated. Usually the deciding authorities are more sympathetic to a prescribed medicine that is contaminated than an over the counter supplement that’s contaminated, with the latter falling closer to the doctrine of “you’re responsible for… Read more »
Braden, do you have any input on how rare it is for someone to have something test positive in their system and whether the individual was being negligent?
Is it rare for someone to get contamination from drinking water, food, etc unknowingly?
If someone tests positive for a minuscule amount of something like Ligandrol, can you confidently say that person took a banned PED? with a confidence of 99.9%.
If someone were to never take a supplement, and do their best to stay away from any risky substances are you going to be 99.9% safe?
I don’t have any data. Anecdotally, in swimming, a full 4 year doping ban is less common that reduced bans, so that’s probably the best evidence that we have – though it’s actually evidence that “the committees believe it” more than it is evidence that “it’s true.”
If someone isn’t taking supplements or medicines (either OTC or prescription), their risk probably goes way down. Same if they don’t live with someone who is. The number of verified food/drinking water contamination cases are anecdotally rare, but again, I don’t actually have any data on that. Just that most contamination cases, as accepted by the decision making authorities, seem to be the result of some kind of a medicine/medicine-like case, either contamination… Read more »