U.S. long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall has been stripped of the national indoor title she earned in February after testing positive for THC, the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis, marijuana and hashish — which are all prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The 23-year-old was also given a one-month suspension, USADA announced this week.
The sample was collected during the 2023 USA Track and Field indoor championships in Albuquerque, N.M. on Feb. 17, when Davis-Woodhall — a former Texas Longhorn — won with a long jump of 6.99 meters.
According to USADA’s press release, the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code says that THC is under a special category that allows for a reduced three-month sanction if the athlete establishes that the use of the prohibited substance was unrelated to sport performance and that it happened out of competition. Davis-Woodhall’s suspension was reduced to one month because of those conditions, and also because she completed a substance abuse treatment program regarding her use of cannabis.
“WADA seeks input on each year’s updated version of the Prohibited List. USADA has advocated and will continue to advocate to WADA, the rule maker, to treat marijuana in a fairer and more effective way to identify true in-competition use,” read a statement by USADA.
Davis-Woodhall began serving her suspension on March 21 and has officially completed it. As of Friday, she has not commented publicly on the sanction.
Another high-profile sanction that happened recently was when U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was banned from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after she tested positive for THC at the Olympic trials. In an interview on Today, Richardson admitted she used marijuana after learning about the death of her biological mother just a few days ahead of the trials.
Davis-Woodhall did, in fact, compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and finished sixth in the long jump.
