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World Championships Silver Medalist Junya Koga Faces 4-Year Ban

2017 World Championships silver medalist Junya Koga of Japan is facing a possible 4-year ban for having tested positively for a prohibited substance earlier this year.

As we reported back in May on the eve of the 2018 Japan Open, the 31-year-old backstroke ace reportedly failed two drug tests in the month of March, which resulted in his being removed from the Japanese National Team. Koga tested positive for traces of ‘banned muscle-building substances’, which the Olympian denied having taken knowingly.

Sources told Kyodo News yesterday, September 17th, that Koga is set to be issued a 4-year by FINA for the violation, a punishment which would render the former Club Wolverine Elite athlete out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, a home-based Games. Koga sought a reduction in his sanction at a hearing before an impartial panel in late August, reports Kyodo, however, his request was rejected. He still could appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

In addition to his 2017 World Championships medal, Koga earned 50m backstroke gold at the 2016 Short Course World Championships in Windsor. He was a 2016 Olympian as a member of Japan’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay.

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Scribble
6 years ago

Japanese athletes test positive. Japan Swimming removes athlete from competition. Good job Japan. Come on Brazil, South Korea, China, and Russia. Doping is not a victimless crime. How many innocent athletes with decades of sacrifice have been denied Olympic or World Championship medals because of cheaters.

Coach Mary
Reply to  Scribble
6 years ago

What was done to those swimmers was awful.

Kelsey
Reply to  Coach Mary
6 years ago

Susie O’Neill too. Chinese got her good in her early days.

Aquajosh
Reply to  Scribble
6 years ago

It’s not just the US that suffered because of the GDR. Canada didn’t win any gold medals in any sport in Montreal 1976. Had it not been for East Germany, Nancy Garapick and Cheryl Gibson would have been household names all over Canada. Garapick would have taken golds in both backstrokes, and Gibson would have led a 1-2 Canadian sweep of the 400 IM.

Scott Morgan
Reply to  Aquajosh
6 years ago

And, in more recent history, the super talented Canadian, Marianne Limpert, was denied gold in 1996 (200 IM) by dope-cheater Michelle Smith. Shame!

Dan
6 years ago

I didn’t know that “coupling forces” were a banned substance.

PACFAN
Reply to  Dan
6 years ago

That’s a good joke. A sleeper, to be sure, but a good joke.

Dan
Reply to  PACFAN
6 years ago

Thanks, I was pretty proud of myself as I typed it out.

Usausausa
Reply to  Dan
6 years ago

That’s an all-time under appreciated joke

Hmmm.....
6 years ago

Was he training under Salo at the time?

Pepito
Reply to  Hmmm.....
6 years ago

No he was at wolverine club the past few years

Swammer
Reply to  Pepito
6 years ago

He left CW a few months before Rio

CraigH
Reply to  Hmmm.....
6 years ago

Dude has been all over the US to train.

Swimmer!
6 years ago

Wasn’t it Ligandrol (a SARM). Sorry, but if you get caught with SARMs in your system, you were taking it knowingly. SARMs don’t make their way into water or protein powders, unless you are deliberately being drugged by someone

AfterShock
Reply to  Swimmer!
6 years ago

And trimetazidine doesn’t make it’s way into Cooper Complete Elite Athletic multivitamins.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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