American football player turned long jumper Marquise Goodwin has vowed to continue competing in the National Football League (NFL) after being handed a one-year suspension by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for not updating his whereabouts information.
Goodwin, the 2008 world junior long jump champion who also finished 10th at the London 2012 Olympics before winning Pan American Games silver in Toronto in 2015, accrued three whereabouts failures over a 12-month period.
This included one missed test as well as two cases of failing to process quarterly whereabouts date by the specified deadline.
“Goodwin’s one-year period of ineligibility began on April 1, 2017, the date of his third whereabouts failure in a 12-month period,” USADA said in a statement.
“As a result of the violation, Goodwin has been disqualified from all competitive results achieved on and subsequent to April 1, 2017, including forfeiture of any medals, points, and prizes.”
The long jumper has juggled his athletics exploits with his main career as a wide receiver in the NFL.
He spent three years with the Buffalo Bills before switching to the San Francisco 49ers for the 2017 season.
However, the 26-year-old claims that he “discontinued all practices associated with competing in track and field” after missing out on a spot in the United States team for the Rio Olympic Games last year.
He thus claims that the suspension is more due to a clerical error meaning that he has not been removed from the whereabouts pool.
This will not affect his NFL career as it is not a signatory of USADA.
“Never in my life have I failed a test,” Goodwin said in a statement released by the 49ers.
“I have never been opposed to testing and, in fact, have always been compliant with each and every protocol and policy associated with my competitive career in track and field.
“More than a year ago, I decided to cease competing in the sport in order to concentrate 100 per cent on my NFL career.
“Therefore, I discontinued all practices associated with competing in track and field, including submitting my whereabouts information.
“It appears that because I did not inform USADA of my plans, my name was inadvertently included in their 2017 testing pool.
“I greatly appreciate the support of the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL as I work to clarify this matter.”
The San Francisco 49ers have also claimed that they had been told by Goodwin that he had given up his athletics career to focus upon American football.
They claimed that, after discussion with the NFL, they will take no disciplinary action under the NFL policy on performance-enhancing substances.
By Nick Butler
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.