The American who beat Pearson to gold at the 2013 world championships and won gold at the Rio Olympics last year, has been banned for missing three drug tests in a year.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency announced Rollins had been banned for the "whereabouts offence" after missing drugs tests on April 27, September 13 and September 27 last year.

Two of those missed tests allegedly occurred when Rollins failed to update details of where she would be when she returned to her hometown for a fete in her honour and another when she went to the White House to meet the president.

The 12-month ban means Rollins will not be in London to compete at this year's World Championships which shapes as Pearson's comeback to major international competition after two years of injury.

Pearson, who did not compete in Rio, pointedly remarked after Rollins won gold in the relatively sluggish time of 12.48 seconds that her Olympic record time of 12.35s still stood.

Rollins burst on the scene in 2013 at the Moscow world championships.

Pearson has battled injury for several years - even in Moscow she was recovering from a hamstring injury and just below her peak - but the 30-year-old's run on 12.53s at the national titles earlier this month suggested she was finally healthy again and set to make a serious push at the worlds this year.

The field now will be without one of her keenest rivals.

Rollins' accounting blunders appear to be clerical rather than mischievous given that on two of the occasions she was at public functions and for the third she changed plans to catch a flight and did not update her athlete log.

"I accept full responsibility for the mistakes that have led to my suspension, and am disappointed that I will have to miss this coming outdoor season, as a result of my confusion over how the whereabouts program worked," Rollins said in a statement.

"This is a very unpleasant experience, but I am able to see where errors were made.

"Understanding this will prevent any similar issues in the future. I will accept the sanction and work to prepare myself for my return in 2018."