Paralympic medallist Daphne Schrager insists she has “never cheated” after being given a two-year ban following an “unintentional” positive test for a banned substance.
Schrager, who won a silver medal at Paris 2024, tested positive for the banned substance Ligandrol, which selectively builds muscle and bone mass.
However, the ban has been backdated to start when she was initially suspended on 2 June 2025.
It will end on 1 June 2027, meaning Schrager could still compete at the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. However, she has been left out of the England squad for the Commonwealth Games, currently taking place in Glasgow.
The substance was found after the 25-year-old completed an out-of-competition test last year.
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) said Schrager argued that she had been exposed to environmental contamination with two possible scenarios.
She said she may have been contaminated at a gym that she had attended to receive a massage, or at a shared home address.
However, a UKAD tribunal found that while Schrager had not intentionally used a banned substance, she had not proved that it was an inadvertent environmental contamination.
In a lengthy statement on Instagram, external, Schrager said she had paid for hair and nail analysis as part of her attempts to prove her innocence – but because the exact source of contamination could not be proven, she had been banned.
“In June last year, I received news that turned my world upside down,” she said. “I had tested positive in an anti-doping test for a trace amount of Ligandrol, detected at 0.0006ng, resulting in my suspension from cycling since that time.
“I want to be very clear: I have never cheated, nor have I ever knowingly taken any banned substance. Facing the possibility of a four-year ban unless I could prove that the result was unintentional has been incredibly distressing.”
Schrager said the panel had confirmed she did not intentionally use or ingest Ligandrol, and she had proved that inadvertent environmental contamination from a minute trace of Ligandrol was to blame for the positive test.
She said the trace of Ligandrol would have provided her with no performance advantage. As a result, none of her results have been disqualified.
“In cases like mine, by the time an athlete is informed of their positive test, too much time has passed to identify the exact source of contamination with the certainty that the rules demand,” Schrager added. “That is not a failure of honesty or effort, it is simply too much of a burden to be met in every case.”
“This is one of the most difficult periods of my life. Losing my contract, my team and the structure that had long shaped my purpose and identity left me facing a level of uncertainty I had never known.”
Schrager, who has cerebral palsy, said the impact on her mental health has been “significant and at times overwhelming” – but vowed she would return to action in 2027.
She won Team GB’s first medal of the 2024 Paralympics with silver in the women’s C1-3 3000m individual pursuit.
She went on to win two gold medals at the Para-cycling Road World Cup in May 2025 in the C2 class – before being suspended a month later.
