On 14 July 2013, Simpson announced that she had tested positive for the drug
oxilofrine. In April 2014, the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission announced that she would be suspended for 18 months over doping charges, expiring in December that year.[2] However, after appealing to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the suspension was lifted on 14 July 2014.
Simpson won the gold medal in the women's 200 m at the
2006 Commonwealth Games, beating Olympic champion
Veronica Campbell and completing a Jamaican sweep of 100–200 m gold medals. Jamaica also won both sprint
hurdles gold medals.
At the
2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she competed at the 100 m sprint. In her first round heat she placed third behind
Yevgeniya Polyakova and
Jade Bailey in a time of 11.48 to advance to the second round. There she improved her time to 11.02 seconds to win her heat in front of
Muna Lee and
Chandra Sturrup. With 11.11 seconds in her semi final race she placed fourth and earned her spot in the Olympic final. In a remarkable race with fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser taking the gold, Simpson and Kerron Stewart both finished in 10.98 seconds to share the silver medal and to complete the Jamaican sweep.[1] Together with Fraser, Stewart,
Sheri-Ann Brooks,
Aleen Bailey and Veronica Campbell-Brown she also took part in the 4 × 100 m relay. In their first round heat (without Simpson and Stewart) they placed first in front of
Russia,
Germany and
China. Their time of 42.24 seconds was the first time overall out of sixteen participating nations. With this result they qualified for the final, in which they replaced Brooks and Bailey with Simpson and Stewart. Eventually they did not finish their race, due to a mistake in the baton exchange.[1]
Brief suspension
On 14 July 2013, Simpson informed that a urine sample she supplied after competing in the Jamaican national championships in June 2013 had tested positive for the banned stimulant
oxilofrine, along with
Asafa Powell.[3] On 10 April 2014, both athletes received an 18-month suspension from competing, which was set to expire in December that year.[2] However, after appealing to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), both athletes' suspensions were lifted on 14 July 2014. CAS stated that: "They put forward that the offence committed was minor because it was caused by contamination of the food supplement Epiphany D1 by the banned substance oxilofrine and requested that the suspensions be reduced to three months."[4]