“I lost the opportunity”- NCAA Champion Kensey McMahon dissapointed after four years doping suspension

The 2023 NCAA Champion Kensey McMahon has been out of the swimming pool since last summer because of a failed drug test. Now, after USADA handed her a four-year suspension, she rallied to make others aware of not losing the opportunity like she did.

Kensey McMahon, 24, the swimmer specializing in distance events, saw her world crash down a week after she competed at the 2023 US National Championships. According to the USADA, her blood sample contained 0.25 ng/ml of Vadadustat, a medicine taken by anemic patients on dialysis to treat kidney issues.

According to her recent Instagram post, McMahon released the news of her four-year suspension being confirmed after an eight-hour-long hearing on May 2, 2024. She hired a law firm to defend her case but the efforts were in vain. Despite producing reports after testing vitamins, supplements, hydration formulas, and medications she consumed in July last year, Kensey McMahon lost her appeal.

She also mentioned in her Instagram post that the arbitrator didn't allege her to have intentionally cheated. However, Kensey McMahon faced the ban since she was not able to meet her burden of proof, based on the latest rules written.

This decision stirred McMahon emotionally and she decided to use her story as an example for other athletes, shedding light on the mental turmoil she faced. In the Instagram post, she shared how she failed in her pursuit of being an Olympian.

"I lost the opportunity to see what I was capable of and how far I could go in my sport, and in my pursuit of being a Paris Olympian because of an ‘estimate’ equivalent to a sprinkle from a saltshaker into and Olympic sized pool."

"Athletes, like me, are not protected" - Kensey McMahon on facing a career block for 'incredibly small' substance consumption

In recent times, several athletes have been under the doping ban for consumption of banned substances listed by WADA. Among them, even prominent names like Sha'Carri Richardson have a failed drug test history.

Addressing the issue of the unsafety of athletes, McMahon wrote in her Instagram about how athletes like her are not safe and presumed guilty of flaws in the current system and its policies.

"With each new story, there is more evidence of the flaws in the current system and its associated policies and politics. Athletes, like me, are not protected and the system weighs heavily against us. We’re presumed guilty and immediately banned from all sports with little recourse. With non-threshold substance cases like mine, ‘the estimate,’ can be something so incredibly small but the consequence is still the same."

Despite the suspension, Kensey McMahon is looking to have a positive mindset and believes that this has happened for a reason.