TEAM GB CHIEFS DEFEND PICKING JADE JONES FOR PARIS 2024 AFTER DOUBLE OLYMPIC CHAMPION AVOIDED BAN FOR REFUSING A DRUGS TEST BEFORE BEING CLEARED ON 'EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES'

Jones, 31, won taekwondo gold at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics

Team GB have defended their decision to select Jade Jones for Paris 2024 despite her breaking anti-doping rules.

The double Olympic taekwondo champion was provisionally suspended by the UK Anti-Doping Agency earlier this year after refusing to provide a urine sample to drug testers in December 2023.

But Jones, who tested negative later that day, escaped further punishment following an investigation which found she ‘bore no fault or negligence for her refusal to submit to sample collection’.

UKAD said they were satisfied to clear the 31-year-old on ‘very exceptional circumstances’, based on confidential medical records, with her lawyer arguing she suffered a ‘loss of cognitive capacity’ when failing to comply with the request.

Jones, who is currently training in Croatia, will now aim to win her third Olympic gold medal in the 57kg category on August 8.

‘I’ve been completely inside that whole story and how it evolved and the remorse that Jade showed,’ said Team GB chef de mission Mark England.

‘The fact that she’s been exonerated by not just UKAD but the international federation and the World Anti-Doping Agency as well, we are completely comfortable and looking forward to embracing her as double Olympic champion.

‘I would absolutely say that she was tested only a couple of hours later on the same day and we have no concerns at all about her integrity, her trust or her position as a member of Team GB.’

England also insists the rest of Jones’ British taekwondo team-mates have no issue with her participating in Paris.

‘I have genuinely not heard anything to the contrary or that there’s any disruption,’ he added.

‘She has apologised profusely to her team-mates, which was a genuine error of judgement and I feel comfortable about that.’

2024-07-24T16:31:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd