Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse player Austin Staats accepts a 3-month period of ineligibility

The ITA confirms that a sample collected in-competition from Austin Staats at the World Lacrosse Men’s Championship 2023 in San Diego, California (USA), returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) for the prohibited substances carboxy-THC, cocaine and its metabolite benzoylecgonine.

The athlete established that he had consumed the prohibited substances out-of-competition and in a context unrelated to sport performance. His 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 World Lacrosse Anti-Doping Rules.¹

The athlete was declared ineligible from 6 September 2023 (date of the notification of the AAF) to 5 December 2023. The athlete’s individual results from 1 July 2023 (date of the sample collection) onwards, including all individual results obtained at the World Lacrosse Men’s Championship 2023, 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.