Paralympic medallist Daphne Schrager has received a two-year ban following an "unintentional" positive test for the banned substance Ligandrol. The 25-year-old athlete, who secured a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, insists she has "never cheated."

The ban, backdated to 2 June 2025, will conclude on 1 June 2027, allowing Schrager the possibility to compete in the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. However, she has been excluded from the England squad for the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The positive test occurred during an out-of-competition assessment last year. According to the National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP), Schrager claimed she could have been contaminated through:

• A gym visit for a massage
• A shared home address

Despite the tribunal acknowledging that she did not intentionally ingest Ligandrol, they ruled she failed to prove it was an inadvertent contamination. In a detailed Instagram statement, Schrager expressed her distress, stating:

"In June last year, I received news that turned my world upside down... I have never cheated, nor have I ever knowingly taken any banned substance."

Schrager emphasized that the trace amount of Ligandrol detected (0.0006ng) would not have provided her with any performance advantage, and thus, none of her results have been disqualified. She criticized the challenges athletes face in proving inadvertent contamination, stating:

"Too much time has passed to identify the exact source of contamination with the certainty that the rules demand."

The impact of the ban on her mental health has been significant, but Schrager remains determined to return to competition in 2027, reflecting on the loss of her contract and team as a profound personal challenge.