Australian Olympian Thomas Fraser-Holmes given 12-month ban for missing drug tests

Australian Olympian Thomas Fraser-Holmes looks certain to miss the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April after being slapped with a 12-month suspension for missing a number of drug tests.

Fraser-Holmes, who won the 200 metre freestyle at the Glasgow Commonwealth games and competed at the Rio Olympics, fronted a FINA hearing on Wednesday night in an attempt to avoid a suspension.

The Gold Coast-based missed the first two tests when he was between coaches after Rio and was 10 minutes late for a third test after being held up having dinner at his mother's house.

"I'm not running away from anything," Fraser-Homes told Fairfax media.

"I made the mistake of not being home," Fraser-Holmes said after the FINA breaches were revealed.

"I'm guilty of a human error, of pretty much just spending some time with my family. Just as normal families do we were just chit-chatting away and it got to five to nine and I realised what time it was.

"The only thing I could do was to change my whereabouts time to 15 minutes later. I didn't know there were drug testers there. I had no way of knowing until a couple of weeks later I had the email that I'd missed the test."

Fraser-Holmes, who is currently in Monaco with the rest of the Australian squad, but is ineligible to race, can appeal the finding at the Court of Arbitration for sport.

He is not the only prominent Olympian in hot water with butterfly silver medallist Madeline Groves also to face a FINA hearing to defend herself against similar allegations. She is in Europe preparing for a series of races ahead of the FINA World Championships in Budapest.