Olympian Thomas Fraser-Holmes hit with 12-month competition ban

Dual Olympian Thomas Fraser-Holmes has been banned for 12 months for missing three out-of-competition drug tests.

Tom Fraser-Holmes competing in the semi-finals of the men’s 200m freestyle at the Rio Olympics. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Dual Olympic swimmer Tom Fraser-Holmes has been suspended for 12 months for missing three out-of-competition drug tests since the Rio Olympics.

Fraser-Holmes is one of three Australian swimmers who have fallen foul of the anti-doping system’s “whereabouts’’ rules since the Rio Games.

Under those rules, all athletes must make themselves available for one hour a day, at a designated time and place, for out-of-competition testing.

If the drug-testers turn up at the time and the athletes are not where they said they would be, they have a strike placed against their name. If they miss three tests in a year, they risk a competition ban.

A one-year ban is the standard punishment. The International Swimming Federation (FINA) is expected to confirm its decision officially later today.

The cases of Olympic silver medallist Madeline Groves and open water swimmer Jarrod Poort have yet to be heard.

Fraser-Holmes’ lawyer Tim Fuller is expected to appeal against the ban on his behalf but if it stands, the swimmer will not be able to defend his Commonwealth Games title in the 200m freestyle in his home town next year.

He has said previously that he missed the third test in February because he was at his mother’s home for dinner and lost track of time

However his excuse was not accepted by the FINA panel, which heard his case this week.

He and Groves are currently in Monaco as part of an Australian squad that will contest the opening round of the Mare Nostrum series this weekend. However he is no longer eligible to compete.

Groves’ case has yet to be heard. She is also disputing the third missed test, arguing that she was at the designated time and place in a college dormitory in San Diego, but the testers failed to find her.