Two-time Olympic 100m medalist Fred Kerley plans to contest a provisional suspension for whereabouts failures, or missing drug tests.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which handles anti-doping for track and field, announced Tuesday that it provisionally suspended Kerley.
Athletes can be provisionally suspended before a hearing to determine the final decision in their case.
A suspension for whereabouts failures, a term that includes missed drug tests, typically ranges from one to two years depending on degree of fault. Suspensions can be backdated to the date of the last missed test.
Olympic-level athletes are required to provide and be present at daily locations for drug testers to find them for no-notice testing.
A press release from lawyer Howard Jacobs’ office was posted on Kerley’s social media less than a half-hour after the provisional ban was announced.
“Kerley has already notified the AIU that he intends to contest the allegation that he has violated the anti-doping rules related to whereabouts failures, as he strongly believes that one of (sic) more of his alleged missed tests should be set aside either because he was not negligent or because the Doping Control Officer did not do what was reasonable under the circumstances to locate him at his designated location,” it read. “Fred will not comment further at this time out of respect for the process, and he looks forward to presenting his case to the appointed hearing panel.”
Kerley missed the Toyota USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships earlier this month, saying at the time that “2025 has presented many hurdles. Taking some time out to get back on track.”
Missing nationals meant that Kerley could not attempt to qualify for September’s World Championships.
Kerley, 30, won Olympic 100m silver in Tokyo and bronze in Paris. In between, he won the world 100m title in 2022, running 9.77 and 9.76 seconds in the semifinals and final.
It took three years until another sprinter ran faster -- Jamaican Kishane Thompson’s 9.75 in June, the world’s best time in a decade.
