By David Williams
Jade Jones has firmly stated that she has never used performance-enhancing drugs, after facing questions for the first time since the revelation the Welsh taekwondo legend refused to take an anti-doping test in December.
Her insistence came shortly after the Flint fighter crashed out of the Paris Olympics in her opening contest, for the second successive Games.
The 31-year-old, who won Olympic gold medals in London and Rio de Janeiro, was cleared of any wrongdoing by the UK Anti-Doping Agency (Ukad) shortly before the Games.
That decision came after she cited a medical condition in her defence.
At the Grand Palais in Paris, Jones, ranked No. 3 in the world, suffered an unexpected early exit when she lost to Miljana Reljikj of North Macedonia in the opening round.
The best-of-three bout was tied 1-1 in the deciding round, but Reljikj was declared the winner due to her more aggressive performance.
Jade Jones: I’m not on drugs, I just lost
Briton beaten in first round of Olympic taekwondo, but lack of details over ‘loss of cognitive capacity’ that cleared her with Ukad means mystery may never be fully explained
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Afterwards, an emotional Jones reaffirmed her commitment to clean competition.
“No, I can confirm I’ve never taken drugs,” she stated. “I’ve done hundreds of tests. Since then I’ve done I think 13 more tests, blood, and I’ve never had any [positive results].”
She continued: “I’m obviously not on drugs, I just lost.”
Had Ukad found her at fault, Jones could have faced a long-term suspension from the sport.
This was not a typical missed test due to failing to update her whereabouts or not being home when a tester arrived. Normally, athletes can miss two such tests in 12 months before a third triggers a violation and potential ban.
However, when a doping control officer approached Jones at a Manchester hotel at 7 a.m. on December 1st last year, she refused to take the test.
Jones explained that she was unable to provide a urine sample because she had neither eaten nor drunk anything for two days in preparation for a weigh-in that morning.
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The case report noted that the doping control officer warned Jones “approximately five times” about the serious consequences of not complying, which could result in a ban of up to four years. Despite this, Jones signed a form indicating she couldn’t provide a sample.
“I signed a piece of paper, yeah,” she explained. “But I didn’t know what I was signing. I was fully dehydrated. I hadn’t drank and wasn’t in the right mind to sign it.”
About an hour later, she left the hotel alone and went home before the weigh-in.
Later that evening, Jones did provide a sample to a different doping control officer, which came back clean. However, this was 12 hours later, a period during which some substances can become undetectable.
“The drugs tester’s come on dehydration day,” Jones explained. “And, people who know, when you’re losing the weight, you haven’t eaten and drank for a few days. And I said straight away, ‘Let’s go, you have to come with me [to a dehydration bath], I’ve got to lose the weight’.
“Then, basically, she didn’t know if she could come or not. So there was a lot of stress, and I was waiting. I needed to go and dehydrate and weigh in. I became stressed. I wasn’t in the right mind. And basically I thought you could miss three [tests]. So I was very lucky, they looked into it, seen I wasn’t in the wrong.”
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After a lengthy disciplinary process, Ukad issued a ‘no-fault’ ruling based on a psychiatrist’s report, which found that Jones’s “decision to refuse or failure to provide a sample occurred as a direct result of her cognitive impairment.”
Details of Jones’s medical condition remain confidential, but Ukad stated that the ruling was made due to “very exceptional circumstances.”
Jones did not speak to the media in the lead-up to the Games, only releasing a brief statement in which she mentioned feeling “stressed and panicked” by her weigh-in when the doping control officer arrived.
Facing the media after her difficult day, in which she was eliminated in the first round just as she was in Tokyo three years ago, Jones reflected on her experience.
“Right now it’s pretty hard, but I’m super proud of having the courage to try to do something that no one’s done [win three golds]. The more you win, the harder it gets, the pressure, the mental side of it, and it’s just tough.
“I came out today and I froze and didn’t have the balls that it took to fight free, let my legs go. I’m just gutted that I didn’t show what I was capable of, that me and my coach have worked so hard to show. If anything, that’s the biggest regret.”
When asked about her future, Jones said: “I don’t know yet, I’m not sure. I’ll just go back home, see my family, and see what happens.”