When asked whether she had ever taken any performance-enhancing drugs, she replied: “No. I can confirm: I’ve never taken drugs.
“I’ve done hundreds of tests and since then [the missed test] I’ve done I think 13 more tests,” she said. “I’m obviously not on drugs because of this loss.”
Ukad had said prior to Paris that it had been presented with confidential medical records that showed Jones bore “no fault or negligence for her refusal or failure to submit to her sample collection”.
Jones, who tested negative later that day after providing a sample to a separate tester, said she “wasn’t in the right mind” after starving herself for two days to make fighting weight.
Addressing reporters immediately after her Olympic exit, Jones was composed but she had earlier been seen wiping away tears as she reflected on the pressure of recent months.
“The drug test has come on dehydration day,” after Telegraph Sport and others asked her for a full explanation for her missed tests. “For people you know, you’re losing the weight and you haven’t eaten or drank for a few days. I said straight away, ‘let’s go – I have to lose the weight’. And then basically she [the tester] didn’t know if she could come or not. So there was a lot of stress and I was waiting. I needed to dehydrate. I become stressed. I wasn’t in the right mind.”
Jones added that “I thought you could miss three” when she signed a form which effectively declared she was refusing a test. “I didn’t know what I was signing,” she added.
In a Games overshadowed by claims against the Chinese swimming team, Team GB had wanted Jones to address the issue. The panel which spared Jones a four-year ban had concluded she bore “no fault or negligence”. She had told investigators she was about to leave for a dehydration bath, rendering her even more incapable of providing the doping control officer (DCO) with a urine sample.
Jones was happy to answer questions but refused to be drawn on exactly why she did not know what she was signing. “I don’t want to go into that side of it,” she said.
On the subsequent investigation, she said: “I am just so grateful, blessed that they looked into it, that I was cleared, I was in no fault. It was a big story. It wasn’t one thing. I am blessed, grateful that they didn’t tarnish it.”
Jones, the 2012 and 2016 gold medallist, had lost her opening round 7-6 before fighting back to win the second. With the third round locked at 1-1 after time had run out, Reljikj, who was then knocked out in the next bout, won on a countback of overall number of hits.
Jones refused to blame the furore on missing a medal in Paris, however. “I came here to win,” she said. “I knew I could win. I had it in my body but on the day I didn’t have the balls that it took and that made the difference. It didn’t help [the controversy] but that’s not the reason why I lost. I’m very grateful and I’m very lucky that everybody looked into it properly.”
She expressed hope that the events of recent months will not be what she is remembered for. “I came out today and didn’t have the balls to fight free and let my legs go and I am just gutted that I didn’t show what I am capable of and what me and my coach have worked so hard to show,” she said. “That is the biggest regret.” Jones has yet to make up her mind on whether this is her last Games.
