LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Archery world champion Mariana Bernal of Mexico was banned for three years, the International Testing Agency said Thursday, after testing positive for an anabolic steroid three weeks after winning a team gold medal against the U.S.
The 23-year-old Bernal did not challenge the doping offense and is banned until after the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. She also was stripped of her 2025 World Cup Finals title.
The ITA said she had one year cut from a routine four-year ban “due to her early admission” of the doping.
Bernal tested positive for nandrolone in an out-of-competition test in September last year, the agency said.
Three weeks earlier she helped Mexico beat the U.S. in the final to win gold in the women’s team compound event at the world championships held in Gwangju, South Korea.
The ITA said Bernal is stripped of her results from the date of the sample.
She keeps her world title but loses the World Cup Finals win from last October, when she had beaten teammate and individual world champion Andrea Becerra in Nanjing, China.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
