The day before Madeline Groves was handed her fate by a FINA doping panel, the 22-year-old butterfly star could barely hide her nerves. She was at a lunch in Brisbane listening to the great Ian Thorpe speak but her mind was elsewhere.
It was only 12 hours before that she had faced FINA officials via a video link to plead her case in the face of an anti-doping rule violation. She had missed three tests during a 12-month period and the third strike could have ruled her out of a home Commonwealth Games, where she would be favourite to add gold to her Rio Olympic silver over 200 metres.
Already, Dolphins compatriots Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Jarrod Poort had been banned for a year. Swimmers, like many elite athletes, must provide an hourly window each day via the Whereabouts app to make themselves available for testing. Miss three in a calendar year and the ban can be as much as two years.
Groves, who trains under Michael Bohl on the Gold Coast and has switched her degree to law, spoke confidently and calmly alongside her lawyer Tim Fuller. They challenged the validity of the third strike, insisting Groves was in the designated time and place and WADA testers at her San Diego University campus failed to do enough to locate her.
Groves had always maintained she was in her room waiting for testers, who stopped at the unattended front desk of the building. With no swimmers in sight, they went on their way and filed the breach notice.
FINA agreed. Groves was given the all clear but will remain on two strikes until mid-November. Should she fulfil her Whereabouts obligations for the next month, her spot at the Commonwealth Games will be assured.
"I have always been confident in achieving this outcome as I have been compliant with all anti-doping policies throughout my career," Groves said. "I am happy to put this behind me and I am looking forward to competing in an attempt to qualify for the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. I'd like to thank my legal representative, Tim Fuller, my coach Michael Bohl and my family and friends for their support throughout this process."
Swimming Australia chief executive Mark Anderson was equally as pleased with the result. But the fact two of his athletes were rubbed out for Whereabouts breaches should be an ongoing concern, with further Australian swimmers also missing testing windows in the wake of the Rio Olympics.
"The Australian Dolphins swim team has worked hard to develop a culture of professionalism and respect within the team. Part of that professionalism is ensuring each athlete is accountable and responsible for accurately providing their whereabouts. Our swimmers' actions and behaviours have shown that they have heard this message and have acted," Anderson said.
It had been a long and difficult wait for Groves, whose case was dragging out while Fraser-Holmes and Poort's were being handled. National coach Jacco Verhaeren had recently urged FINA to speed up the hearing process.
Fraser-Holmes, who swam in three events in Rio and won the 200-metre freestyle at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, missed his third test when he arrived home 10 minutes late following a dinner at his parent's house.
He contested the matter but was unable to sway FINA officials. He was forced out of the Dolphins camp in Europe ahead of the World Championships in Hungary and has been banished from any pools and coaches affiliated with Swimming Australia.
Poort accepted his sanction and can return to swimming in September 2018. He said he was embarrassed to have let the testing windows lapse.
"It was remiss of me to neglect a management system that must be shown the full respect it deserves and it is a very embarrassing situation to now be in," Poort said.
"The Whereabouts system is one of the tools that aids in keeping legitimacy in the sport that myself and so many others love and spend so much time in and as such it needs to be treated with precision and respect."
