Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall stripped of national title after positive cannabis test

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US long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall has been stripped of her recent national indoor title and suspended for one-month after she tested positive for cannabis, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced Tuesday.

Tara Davis-Woodhall suspended faces consequences for testing positive for cannabis

USADA said Davis-Woodhall tested positive for THC, a chemical found in cannabis, marijuana, or hashish.

Officials were notified of the 23-year-old’s positive test from the result of a sample collected at the 2023 USA Track and Field indoor championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 17, right after she had won the title with a jump of 6.99 meters.

USDA said Davis-Woodhall has already completed her suspension, which she began serving on March 21.

Cannabis, marijuana, and hashish are considered prohibited substances under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules.

“WADA seeks input on each year’s updated version of the Prohibited List,” USADA’s press release states. “USADA has advocated and will continue to advocate to WADA, the rule maker, to treat marijuana in a fairer and more effective way to identify true in-competition use.”

Per WADA rules, THC allows for a reduced three-month suspension if the athlete establishes the substance was not competition and sport performance related. USADA said Davis-Woodhall’s suspension was reduced to one month for those reasons and because she completed a substance abuse treatment program.

But the reduced penalty did not save her national title. USADA wrote that Davis-Woodhall was “disqualified from all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to February 17, 2023 … including forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes.”

Davis-Woodhall’s penalty comes after US sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson’s high-profile ban during the 2020 Olympics (which took place in 2021 in Tokyo) following a positive cannabis test. Her suspension raised debate over why athletes are still suspended for a drug that has widely been decriminalized in the U.S. and doesn’t enhance performance.

USADA acknowledged that controversial debate in its statement Tuesday while deferring to rules set by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“USADA has advocated and will continue to advocate to WADA, the rule maker, to treat marijuana in a fairer and more effective way to identify true in-competition use,” the statement reads.