Claimant USADA and respondent Luis Arias.
USADA announced today that an independent American Arbitration Association (AAA) arbitrator has issued a decision finding that Luis Arias, of Oak Creek, Wis., a U.S. athlete in the sport of boxing, has committed an anti-doping rule violation and has received a one-year suspension for the offense.
Arias 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. Arias 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.
A hearing was held on February 23, 2012. Arias’ one-year period of ineligibility, began on February 24, 2012 the date the arbitrator issued the decision. As a result of the violation, Arias has been disqualified from all competitive results achieved on and subsequent to January 1, 2012, the date of his third Whereabouts Failure, including forfeiture of any medals, points, and prizes.
