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6 March 2025
The ITA confirms that a sample collected in-competition from Larson Sundown at the 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships in Utica, New York, USA returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) for the prohibited substance carboxy-THC.
The athlete established that he had consumed the prohibited substance out-of-competition and in a context unrelated to sport performance. The athlete’s sanction was thus lowered to three months insofar as he meets the requirements of the mitigation regime of “Substance of Abuse” set forth in Article 10.2.4.1 of the WL Anti-Doping Rules.¹
The athlete was declared ineligible from 25 November 2024 (date on which the athlete accepted to be provisionally suspended) to 24 February 2025. The athlete’s individual results from 28 September 2024 (date of the sample collection) onwards, including all individual results obtained at 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships, have also been disqualified.
The prosecution of the matter was handled by the ITA on behalf of World Lacrosse.
The ITA will not comment further on this case.
¹ The World Anti-Doping Code (Code) defines “Substances of Abuse” as “substances that are identified as such because they are frequently abused in society outside of the context of sport. The following are designated Substances of Abuse: cocaine, diamorphine (heroin), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA/”ecstasy”), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).” The regime of “Substance of Abuse” was introduced on 1 January 2021 with the entry of the new Code. Prior to the 2021 Code, sanctions for such cases could go up to four years depending on the circumstances. The introduction of the “Substance of Abuse” regime addresses the concerns expressed by many stakeholders during the public consultation process for the new Code whereby it transpired that where the athlete’s positive case is rather related to a drug problem than to performance enhancement, the athlete’s health should be the priority.
