Shelby Houlihan stated on Monday she had acquired a four-year ban for testing constructive for an anabolic steroid however the American record-holder within the 1,500m and 5,000m denied she had knowingly taken a prohibited substance.
Simply days earlier than the U.S. Olympic Observe and Subject Trials are set to start, the 28-year-old stated in a written assertion that the Athletics Integrity Unit knowledgeable her in January a World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) take a look at confirmed an “hostile analytical discovering” for nandrolone.
Houlihan, who received the 1,500m and 5,000m on the USA Outside Observe and Subject Championships in 2019 and was thought of a medal contender for the Tokyo Olympics, thought the constructive consequence might need come from consuming pork, which she stated may result in a false constructive for nandrolone, the night time earlier than the take a look at.
‘Snap determination’
“I did every little thing I may to show my innocence. I handed a polygraph take a look at. I had my hair sampled by one of many world’s foremost toxicologists,” she stated.
“Nothing moved the lab from their preliminary snap determination.”
WADA and USA Observe and Subject didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Olympic hopes dashed
Houlihan, who competed on the 2016 Rio Olympics however has not raced in 2021, stated she realized on Friday that the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport had handed her the ban, dashing her hopes of competing in Tokyo or on the 2024 Paris Video games.
4-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan, who coaches at Houlihan’s Bowerman Observe Membership, wrote on social media: “We live a nightmare that we can not seem to get up from.
“If that is the place the game I like is headed, then I do not know if I can proceed to be a part of it,” wrote Flanagan. “I refuse to imagine that is acceptable and neither must you.”
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—@BowermanTC
