Luis Arias (Respondent) is a member of the USADA National Testing Pool, which consists of a select group of athletes subject to certain whereabouts requirements in order to be located for USADA Out-of-Competition testing. Respondent failed to comply with the whereabouts requirements and, as a result, accrued three Whereabouts Failures within an 18-month period.
Under the USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing and the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Anti-Doping Rules, both of which have adopted the World Anti-Doping Code (“Code”), the combination of three Whereabouts Failures within an 18-month period constitutes a rule violation.
A Whereabouts Failure for National Testing Pool athletes includes failure to provide required quarterly whereabouts filings and/or failure to be available for testing due to inaccurate or incomplete information provided by the athlete.
In this Final Award the North American Court of Arbitration for Sport Panel denies Respondent’s claims about whereabouts filing failures and concludes he acted negligently.
Conclusion and sanction:
1.) USADA sought a 1 year period of ineligibility for Respondent’s whereabouts violation, a first anti-doping rules’ violation on his part.
2.) The Interim Final Award is hereby confirmed and Respondent is hereby sanctioned for a 1 year period of ineligibility commencing as of February 24, 2012, the date of the Interim Final Award and ending at midnight on February 23, 2013.
3.) Consequently, all competitive results, medals, points and prizes obtained by Respondent on or subsequent to January 1, 2012, his third whereabouts failure, are hereby cancelled with retroactive effect.
4.) The Administrative fees and expenses of the American Arbitration Association and the compensation and expenses of the Arbitrator shall be borne by USADA.
5.) The parties shall bear their own costs and attorneys’ fees.
6.) This Final Award is in full settlement of all claims asserted in this arbitration. All claims not expressly granted herein are hereby, denied.
