by Olympic swimming gold medalist Ahmed Hafnaoui has voluntarily agreed to an interim suspension in a case involving his location for drug testing.
Hafnaoui, a 22-year-old Tunisian, was charged with three failures over a 12-month period by the International Testing Agency.
Failures where failures are missed and/or filing failures. A filing failure could mean filling out forms incorrectly to tell drug testers where an athlete can be found, or not submitting quarterly forms at all.
Interim suspensions may be issued pending a hearing to determine a final sanction, if applicable. Suspensions for finding out where failures can range from one to two years.
“Pending the resolution of this matter, Mr. Hafnaoui has voluntarily accepted a provisional suspension,” According to the Aquatic Integrity Unit. “As the matter is ongoing, there will be no further comment during the ongoing proceedings.”
Hafnaoui became arguably the biggest swimming upset of the Tokyo Olympics, qualifying last in the eight 400m freestyle final and then winning the race.
He entered Tokyo ranked 17th in the world in the 400m freestyle in 2021 and lowered his personal best by 2.8 seconds between the heats and the final.
At the 2023 World Championships, Hafnaoui won the 800m and 1500m Frees in the third fastest times in the history of each race, and took silver in the 400m Free.
He did not participate in the Paris Olympics after saying in May that he was dealing with an undisclosed injury, According to the France-Press agency.
