Former British UCI Para-cycling world champion and Paralympic silver medallist Daphne Schrager has received a two-year doping ban after a tribunal accepted she had not knowingly or recklessly used a prohibited substance, even though she could not prove exactly how it entered her system.
Schrager was sanctioned after an out-of-competition urine sample provided on 16 April 2025 was found to contain a metabolite of ligandrol, a substance that promotes lean muscle growth and is prohibited in sport at all times. As a non-specified substance, its presence normally carries a presumption of intentional use and a four-year ban unless the athlete proves otherwise.
The full reasoned decision from the National Anti-Doping Panel, published this week, sets out how Schrager’s legal team came close to meeting that burden but ultimately fell short of the higher standard required for a further reduction or complete dismissal of the case.
Two contamination theories, neither proven
Schrager’s lawyers put forward two possible explanations: contamination in her shared home or contamination during a massage appointment at a gym two days before her positive test.
Investigators, including a private investigator and a former police officer, swabbed both locations and interviewed staff and gym-goers. One investigator also purchased a ligandrol product from a supplements shop near the gym after staff asked whether he trained there. Despite the investigation, no trace of ligandrol was found at either location, and the tribunal concluded that neither theory had been proven as the actual source.
Nevertheless, expert witnesses for both sides ultimately agreed during a joint expert evidence session that environmental contamination was the most plausible explanation for the low concentration found in her sample, even though the precise source could not be identified.
Notably, the anti-doping body’s own expert, Professor David Cowan of King’s College London, said under questioning that he had personally been “persuaded” contamination was very likely, despite maintaining in his written evidence that the analytical finding could not scientifically rule out the tail end of deliberate use.
Not a “dopey doper”
Central to Schrager’s defence was the argument that she was not what her lawyers called a “dopey doper” — someone using a prohibited substance too gain any performance benefit.
Experts agreed that meaningful muscle gains from ligandrol require approximately one tablet per day for eight to twelve weeks, while hair and nail testing found no evidence of sustained use. Combined with her clean testing history and evidence of consistently cautious anti-doping practices, this persuaded the tribunal that she had neither knowingly used the drug nor recklessly disregarded a known risk by attending the gym for treatment.
Backdating and results left untouched
Schrager’s team also argued that laboratory and UK Anti-Doping delays — her positive result took 36 days to report, exceeding the standard 20-day guideline — justified backdating her ban to the sample collection date.
The tribunal rejected the argument, finding she had not demonstrated any concrete prejudice resulting from the delay. Her ban therefore runs from the date her provisional suspension began, 02 June 2025, rather than from the sample collection date.
The panel did, however, decline to strip her of two victories at the Para-cycling Road World Cup in Italy the following month, accepting that trace-level contamination weeks earlier could not plausibly have provided any competitive advantage.
Ban details
Her two-year ban is backdated to 02 June 2025, meaning she becomes eligible to compete again from 07 June 2027.
Schrager, 25, from Malmesbury, took up cycling in 2019 after a career as a Paralympic sprinter. She has won two track world titles in the C2 and C3 individual pursuit, along with road race bronze and omnium silver medals, and claimed silver in the C1-3 3000m individual pursuit at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Photo Credit: REX Features
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