ITALIAN Olympic event rider Vittoria Panizzon has been handed a four-year suspension from the sport for a missed out-of-competition human anti-dope test. The British-based rider is appealing the ban.

The suspension was handed down by Italy’s national anti-doping organisation (NADO) for being deemed to have failed to comply with the World Anti-Doping Association’s (WADA) “athlete’s whereabouts” scheme by avoiding testing. Under the programme, athletes who are part of a registered testing pool must provide their location and availability at all times so anti-doping tests can be carried out, without notice.

In November 2023, after the eventing season had finished, Vittoria was abroad, and had recorded her whereabouts on the NADO software.

In a statement posted online, she said she was “on holiday abroad a month after the competition season at a sprawling, rural property with bad phone signal, as I had recorded on the whereabouts software, and at 5am in the dark - the tester from Italian NADO and I couldn’t find each other according to the protocol, which allows no prior notice.”

Panizzon added: “Because I have been in Olympic contention for 15 years, I have unusually been on the system for all that time undergoing over 60 no notice tests, of course with negative results. It is a uniquely complex reporting system that is very difficult to work with in the rapidly changing lives of riders, but there’s absolutely no reason for me to avoid human testing. I don’t even drink, I have never smoked, I grow my own vegetables and I don’t take any medicine unless I absolutely have to.”

Despite trying to explain the situation to NADO, it was dismissed and the suspension enforced. It has also been mirrored by the FEI and she cannot participate in any sport-related activity.

Panizzon said her career and livelihood is at stake and she has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“I have appealed to CAS and I hope that the situation will be clarified in accordance with the principles of fairness in sport but for now I am losing the opportunity to compete in a sport that is my everything and therefore my career and my livelihood. I am overwhelmed by the support of my owners and supporters, everyone who knows me is being amazing, but I am distraught,” the three-time Olympian added.