United States sprinter Erriyon Knighton went to court Monday to defend his claim he was contaminated in a positive doping test case that risks a ban from the next world championships.
A two-time Olympic finalist in the 200 meters aged just 21, Knighton was cleared to run at the Paris Summer Games last year only after an American tribunal ruled he was not at fault for the positive test for trenbolone, a steroid used in livestock farming.
The World Anti-Doping Agency and track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit have challenged that ruling in combined appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
CAS has scheduled the appeal hearing for two days and said a verdict is likely within several weeks.
The U.S. track and field national championships start July 31 in Eugene, Oregon. They are trials to pick the U.S. team for the 2025 worlds that open Sept. 13 in Tokyo.
Knighton’s attorney Howard Jacobs suggested last year Knighton could be “collateral damage” in an ongoing feud between WADA and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, fueled by how a case of alleged contamination of Chinese Olympic swimmers was handled by the global watchdog.
USADA prosecuted Knighton’s original case after he tested positive in March last year and accepted the “no-fault” ruling based on the explanation the contamination was by oxtail from a bakery in central Florida.
The USADA investigation included obtaining the meat and testing it, plus interviews with the manager of the bakery, Knighton, his girlfriend and his mother. They backed up the athlete’s claim of contamination.
In the Chinese case, an explanation of contamination with a banned heart medication in a hotel kitchen in 2021 was accepted without evidence backing the theory. WADA lawyers and officials decided the agency was unlikely to win any appeals brought to CAS without being able to gather independent evidence in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Knighton is the sixth-fastest 200 runner in track history with a personal best time of 19.49 seconds set in 2022. Usain Bolt’s world record is 19.19.
He placed fourth in the 200 at past two Olympic Games, and took one silver medal and one bronze from the past two editions of worlds.
