Jones avoids ban because of 'exceptional circumstances'

British double Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones has been cleared to compete at the 2024 Games after it was decided she will not face any sanctions over a doping violation.

Jones, a gold medallist at London 2012 and Rio 2016, was provisionally suspended by the UK Anti-Doping Agency (Ukad) after she failed to provide a urine sample to officials who arrived at her hotel in Manchester on 1 December 2023.

But Ukad said it had been presented with confidential medical records that showed Jones bore "no fault or negligence for her refusal or failure to submit to her sample collection".

Ukad, which did not specify the medical conditions, say it was satisfied not to punish Jones on the "very exceptional circumstances".

The 31-year-old signed a document to say she was unable to provide a sample as she was having dehydration training before a weigh-in when the officials visited her in a hotel in December.

Ukad's 'no-fault' ruling was on the basis of a report by a psychiatrist, who confirmed that Jones' "decision to refuse or failure to provide a sample occurred as a direct result of her cognitive impairment".

Jones, who tested negative later that day after providing a sample to a separate tester, says she made a "mistake" by not providing the sample at the first time of asking.

"At the moment this started, I didn't grasp the situation I was in and what could happen," said Jones in a statement.

"What I understand now is not just the mistake I made but the reasons it happened and that there could have been different consequences."

She added she was "stressed and panicked" on the morning of the missed test.

Wales' Jones won Olympic gold at London 2012, aged 19.

She successfully defended her title in Rio four years later but failed to make it three-in-a-row in Tokyo in 2021 when she lost in the last-16 to Kimia Alizadeh.

Jones has been selected in a four-person Great Britain taekwondo team for the Paris Games in July.