Pole vaulter Alysha Newman banned 20 months for whereabouts failures
Canadian pole vaulter Alysha Newman, who won bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics, received a 20-month ban from the Athletics Integrity Unit for three missed doping tests within a 12-month period. The failures occurred during an unannounced session in February 2025 and two more in August 2025. After the third, Newman told a sample collection official she had to leave immediately to film a television game show.
The AIU imposed a reduced penalty from the standard two years after accepting that Newman had ended her pole vaulting career, deeming it a unique factor in assessing her fault. Athletes in the global anti-doping system must specify a daily one-hour window of availability for testing. Newman last competed at Diamond League meetings in Qatar and Morocco in May 2025.
Newman reached two world championship finals, won gold and bronze at the Commonwealth Games, and earned bronze at the Pan American Games. She becomes the latest Canadian athlete linked to controversy following accusations of double-touching stones by curlers and race manipulation by the skeleton team around the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Newman's suspension expires in August 2027.
