Mo Farah missed two drug tests before winning two golds at London Olympics
LONDON (AP) — Distance runner Mo Farah missed two drug tests in the leadup to the 2012 London Olympics, where he won gold medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, a British newspaper reported Thursday.
The Daily Mail said the British runner missed one test in 2010 and another in 2011. Under international rules, three missed tests in a 12-month period is considered a doping violation that can be punished by a two-year ban.
"If you miss another test, they will hang you," the paper quoted Farah's American coach, Alberto Salazar, telling the runner in an email in May 2011.
The report comes at a time when Salazar is under scrutiny amid doping allegations.
In investigations by the BBC and ProPublica, Salazar was accused by former assistant Steve Magness of violating anti-doping rules and encouraging doping by one of his top runners, Galen Rupp. Rupp won the silver medal in the 10,000 at the London Olympics, finishing behind Farah.
Salazar and Rupp have denied wrongdoing. No accusations against Farah were made in the investigations.
The Daily Mail said Farah's first missed test occurred before he started working with Salazar, with the second coming in February 2011 after the runner joined Salazar's Nike Oregon Project in Oregon.
Farah maintained he did not hear the doorbell when he missed the second test, the Daily Mail reported. His agent, Ricky Simms, submitted video evidence to back up that defense, the report said.
The paper published emails exchanged between lawyers from Britain's national anti-doping agency, UK Anti-Doping, and Farah's representatives. The UKAD lawyers were quoted as saying in one email: "The simple fact with this missed test is that your client says that he did not intend to miss the test, but it is clearly his own fault that he did."
UKAD would not comment on the Daily Mail report. It issued a statement Thursday saying that it "does not disclose personal data relating to an individual's test history."
Farah pulled out of the Diamond League meet in Birmingham earlier this month after the allegations against Salazar came out, saying he was "physically and emotionally drained" by the case.
Farah said Wednesday he would make his next appearance at the Diamond League meet in Monaco on July 17.