CHICAGO (AFP) – Top US rhythmic gymnast Laura Zeng, a teen who swept five titles at the 2015 Pan American Games, was issued a six-month ban Wednesday by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
The 19-year-old from suburban Chicago, whose parents emigrated from China to the United States, was punished for a positive test that was linked to an altitude sickness medication prescribed to a parent.
Zeng, in training near her home for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, tested positive for the banned masking agent acetazolamide in a random testing urine sample on October 18.
A USADA investigation into the matter produced evidence that Zeng was given a medication to combat air sickness by a parent while at high altitude, the teen saying she believed she was given ibuprofen.
Zeng was issued a six-month ban from the testing date, but did not forfeit her six titles from the Pan American rhythmic gymnastics championships last September at Lima, where she swept the hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon and all-around crowns and led a US team triumph.
Zeng was the most decorated athlete at the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games, claiming the four apparatus titles and the all-around crown.
She was 11th at the 2016 Rio Olympics and owns the top US finishes at the world championships in apparatus and all-around competition.
