World triathlon champion Tim Don has been given a three-month ban for missing three drugs tests and faces a lifetime ban from the Olympics, the British Triathlon Association (BTA) said on Friday.
The 28-year-old Briton, who won the world title in Lausanne, Switzerland a month ago, competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics but is now set to be ruled out of any future Games under the British Olympic Association's (BOA) strict anti-doping rules.
However, he said he does not plan to appeal against the three-month BTA ban, given after he missed three out-of-competition tests.
"I have never taken, or even considered taking, a performance-enhancing drug in my life and I am absolutely devastated to receive a suspension for contravening anti-doping regulations," Don said in a statement.
"I fully understand that it is my responsibility as a professional athlete to log my whereabouts on the UK Sport system and accept that it is due to my forgetfulness and lack of understanding of the online system following its launch last year that I have received this ban."
Norman Brook, chief executive of British Triathlon, said: "There is no suggestion that Tim Don was guilty of anything other than forgetfulness and a lack of understanding of the Whereabouts System. He has been a strong advocate of drug-free sport throughout his career and has been tested on nine separate occasions this year with no adverse findings."
Last month, British 400 metres runner Christine Ohuruogu was given a year's suspension for missing three tests.
She is appealing against her Olympic ban to the Court of Arbitration in Sport in a case which would obviously reflect on Don's situation.
Don finished 10th in the inaugural Olympic triathlon in Sydney, racing over the Olympic distance of 1,500 metres swim, 40 km bike and 10 km run.
The former world junior triathlon and world duathlon (run/bike/run) champion was 18th in Athens but capped a sensational 2006 when he became Britain's first male world champion for eight years when he outran New Zealand's Olympic champion Hamish Carter.
Triathlon has suffered a series of high-profile doping setbacks in recent years.
The first Olympic women's champion, Brigitte McMahon of Switzerland, retired in 2005 after testing positive for EPO while Germany's Nina Kraft also failed an EPO test after she won the prestigious Hawaii Ironman in 2004.
Spencer Smith, another former British world champion, was banned after testing positive for nandrolone after his Hawaii debut eight years ago but the ban was overturned.