KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – Shelly-Ann Fraser has broken her silence on her ban for using a prohibited substance, and accepts full responsibility for the issue.
The Olympic and World 100 metres champion was banned for six months by the International Association of Athletic Federations for using the pain-killer Oxycodone, which she used for a toothache at May’s Shanghai Diamond League meeting.. “I don’t normally take stuff about which I have to be querying,” she said in an interview with TVJ Sports.
“I am happy, excited, and relieved that this is over and that I did not get more than the six months, which would have made me unable to take part at the next Olympics.”
A doping test conducted prior to the IAAF Diamond League meet last May in Shanghai turned-up the substance.
Fraser explained she had suffered excruciating pain from a dental procedure, and used the medication after the pain-killer meet officials had given her proved ineffective.
The dynamic sprinter recalled that she almost fainted when her coach Steve Francis broke the news to her, and could only cry when she related the story to her fiancé over the phone.
“The coach asked me, ‘If I had remembered to put down the tablet I took on the declaration,’” she said.
“I was like, ‘No’! It was one pill – and it was a painkiller – so I did not bother to put it on the form because I was saying it was a painkiller. I just did not remember.
“I don’t blame my coach, as professional athletes we are all responsible for all we take.”
Fraser indicated that she is looking to rebound from her short suspension, and is not too concerned about the finger-pointing that may take place.
“At the end of day, people (may) want to sit on the outside and say, ‘Oh, she’s taking drugs, she’s a cheat’,” she said.
“They can say this, but there’s nothing I can do about it, because I can’t stop people from saying what they want to say.”
Fraser’s ban ends on January 7, and she admits that she has learnt from her mistake.
“Normally, I don’t really read through the (World Anti-Doping Agency’s) rule book and find out what has been added or (subtracted), but now that this has happened, I will take the time to find out what new is going on in my sport, find out what has been added, what has been taken off,” she concluded.