Former NCAA champion and World Championship medalist Kensey McMahon has obtained a four-year suspension from the US Anti-Doping Company (USADA) after testing constructive for a banned substance in 2023.
McMahon, 24, examined constructive for vadadustat throughout an in-competition check on the 2023 U.S. Nationwide Championships final July. She and USADA mutually agreed to delay the arbitration listening to whereas she remained provisionally suspended to offer her a possibility to analyze the supply of the constructive check.
The listening to was held on Might 2, 2024, the place an arbitrator decided that McMahon would obtain the four-year sanction.
Vadadustat is described by USADA as a “non-specified substance within the class of Peptide Hormones, Progress Components, Associated Substances and Mimetics” and is prohibited beneath the USADA, U.S. Olympic Committee and World Aquatics doping management guidelines.
Vadadustat is offered beneath the model identify Vafseo and used as a medicine used for the therapy of symptomatic anemia related to power kidney illness. It was authorised for medical use within the European Union in April 2023 and within the U.S. in March 2024.
McMahon didn’t shed any gentle on what she discovered relating to the supply of the check, however did put up on Instagram acknowledging the suspension.
In September 2023, two months after the constructive check, McMahon informed SwimSwam she was placing swimming “on pause” however declined to elaborate on the reasoning.
“My post-grad plan was to proceed within the sport however typically plans don’t work out as you envision,” she stated on the time. “Swimming is on pause and I’m pursuing different alternatives.”
McMahon’s constructive check got here within the midst of probably the most profitable run of her profession.
At U.S. Nationals when she examined constructive, she positioned third within the girls’s 1500 free (16:07.78) and sixth within the 800 free (8:25.97), each private finest instances, and was additionally eighth within the 400 free.
All of McMahon’s outcomes on and after July 1, 2023, have been disqualified, together with the 1500 free at Nationals, which was on that actual date. Her swims within the 400 and 800 free each got here earlier within the meet (June 27-July 1).
McMahon wrapped up her faculty eligibility at Alabama in March 2023 with the very best 12 months of her profession, profitable NCAA titles within the girls’s 500 free (4:36.62) and 1650 free (15:43.84) whereas additionally claiming the SEC title within the mile for the second time.
Even when McMahon had examined constructive previous to the tip of the NCAA season, her faculty outcomes wouldn’t have been disqualified because the NCAA isn’t a World Anti-Doping Company signatory.
She additionally had a breakthrough in meters within the midst of her final NCAA season, profitable bronze on the 2022 Brief Course World Championships within the girls’s 1500 freestyle whereas representing the US.
The Jacksonville, Florida native was named to the Nationwide Group in open water in 2023, and has represented the U.S. internationally in open water occasions a number of instances, together with inserting tenth on the 2022 World Championships within the girls’s 25km.
Over the course of her collegiate profession, McMahon was a nine-time All-American, together with ending inside the highest eight of the 1650 free in all 4 of her NCAA appearances. On the convention stage, she gained the SEC title within the 1650 free in 2020 to go together with her 2023 title, and he or she by no means missed the rostrum over 5 championship appearances, additionally inserting third in 2019 and 2nd in each 2021 and 2022.
