Olympic champion kayaker’s two-year doping ban upheld

Olympic gold medalist Tate Smith will miss the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games after his two-year doping ban was upheld on Wednesday.

The Australian kayaker tested positive for a metabolite of the prohibited substance stanozolol in two out-of-competition samples taken during the summer of 2014.

“The samples were analyzed by the World Anti-Doping Agency accredited laboratory in Cologne, Germany, which is capable of detecting steroids at very low levels,” the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority said in a statement.

Smith was part of his country’s championship four-man kayak team at the 2012 London Games.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport found no evidence of his claim that the anabolic agent was present in the waters where he trained and had entered his system through ingestion or skin contact.