U.S. Paralympic Triathlon Athlete Jamie Brown Accepts Finding of No Fault
Press Release
29th October 2020
USADA announced today that Jamie Brown, of Oceanside, Calif., an athlete in the sport of Paralympic triathlon, has tested positive for a prohibited substance, which was determined to have been ingested by him without fault or negligence. As a result, Brown will not face a period of ineligibility for his positive test.
“If an athlete ingests a prohibited substance from a completely innocent source, such as contaminated medication, meat, or water, and there is no effect on performance, there should not be a violation or a public announcement,” said Travis T. Tygart, Chief Executive Officer of USADA. “We have now had 26 of these tragic no-fault cases since 2016, and the injustice keeps happening. How many more athletes will suffer and resources will be wasted before we, as a WADA community, reform the system to be more fair, effective, and efficient?”
Brown, 41, tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) as the result of an out-of-competition urine sample he provided on August 24, 2020. HCTZ is a Specified Substance in the class of Diuretics and Masking Agents and is prohibited at all times under the USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee National Anti-Doping Policies, and the International Triathlon Union Anti-Doping Rules, all of which have adopted the World Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List.
During USADA’s investigation into the circumstances of his case, Brown provided USADA with records of a permitted oral prescription medication that he was taking at the time of his positive test. This permitted medication, which Brown takes at the direction of a physician, did not list HCTZ or any other prohibited substances on the label. However, detailed laboratory analysis subsequently conducted on multiple tablets of the athlete’s medication confirmed HCTZ contamination at a level consistent with Brown’s positive test.
Brown will not face a period of ineligibility for his positive test, and because the sample was collected out-of-competition, there are no competitive results to disqualify.
