The ineligibility decision

The International Testing Agency (ITA) said Daria Pikulik, 29, accepted an 18-month period of ineligibility for three whereabouts failures within 12 months. The ban runs from 9 December 2024 to 8 June 2026, and during that stretch she was stripped of every result. The decision can still be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The rider is a native of Skarżysko-Kamienna in Poland and won the omnium silver medal at Paris 2024.

Her explanation on Instagram

Pikulik posted a long statement on Instagram on 19 October 2026 and tied it directly to her absence from racing since March. She wrote that she had missed controls in September and October 2023 and a third in September 2024, which she put down to an oversight and a much heavier workload. Speculation about her absence from the track had been circulating before she published the statement, according to Interia. Summing up the past two years, she wrote:

“I spent the last two years trying to defend my good name.”

She said the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in March 2026 that she was guilty of missing a test, but imposed no penalty in that ruling. In September she was finally suspended for the period from December 2024 to June 2026, which she described as an extremely hard time for herself and those closest to her. She insisted the violations were never deliberate:

“I never intended to violate anti-doping rules.”

She added that she had undergone dozens of doping controls throughout her career without any problems, and she apologised to everyone she had let down.

Absence from Shanghai and track racing

Pikulik was left out of the Polish squad for the track world championships in Shanghai, which ended on 18 October 2026. Her statement says she has not competed since March, the same month the CAS ruling was issued. Shortly after the Paris Games she had announced a pause in her track career, according to Polsatsport and Interia. Her results from the sanctioned period are annulled, and the appeal route to CAS stays open.

Paris 2024 medal and Polish track history

At the Paris 2024 Olympics she took the omnium silver, finishing behind Jennifer Valente. Polsatsport counts it as the fourth Polish Olympic track cycling medal and the first in 52 years, following the tandem bronze won by Andrzej Bek and Benedykt Kocot in Munich in 1972. Polish cyclists across all disciplines hold 12 Olympic medals, eight silver and four bronze. Pikulik also took world bronze in the omnium in Berlin in 2020, and her European record includes two silver and four bronze medals in various track events.

What happens next

The 18-month decision can still be appealed to CAS, and the source articles do not say whether she will appeal. The ineligibility period itself ended on 8 June 2026. In her closing lines she said she must accept what happened and put it behind her, and she thanked those who supported her during the period.