World Athletics to stress test US sprinter's contaminated-oxtail defence - Town Square #3
The US sprinter Erriyon Knighton tested positive for an anabolic steroid but was cleared to compete at Paris 2024 by an arbitrator. His manager was once banned as part of the BALCO doping scandal.
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The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the body that polices doping in international track and field, has filed an appeal in the case of the elite US sprinter Erriyon Knighton. If the AIU’s appeal is successful, Knighton could become the first Paris Olympian, from the USA, to be retroactively disqualified.
Knighton’s manager, during his own sprint career, had his professional results expunged from 2000 onwards after he was banned by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
In July, Knighton successfully argued that the source of his positive drug test was contaminated oxtail that had been purchased from a Florida bakery. Knighton’s lawyers presented strong evidence at his hearing. This included receipts of purchase and independent verification of the evidence by USADA, the agency that prosecuted the case.
The AIU’s defence strategy has yet to be outlined.
On April 12th 2024, Knighton tested positive for metabolites of the anabolic steroid trenbolone during an unannounced doping control in Florida.
Knighton set an unratified junior world record of 19.49 in the 200m in 2022, and trains at the University of Florida under the coach Mike Holloway. Holloway also trains the Olympic heptathlete Anna Hall and the 110m hurdles Olympic champion Grant Holloway (no relation).
Knighton’s manager is Ramon Clay, a former 200m US champion, who was suspended for two years by USADA for his use and possession of anabolic steroids. It was alleged that Clay was a customer of the doping dealer Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia during the trial of Marion’s Jones’ coach Trevor Graham. Heredia also reportedly provided drugs to the sprinter Duane Ross, whose son Randolph, a Tokyo 2020 gold medallist, was banned by the AIU for tampering with the doping control process in 2022.
Knighton, who won silver in the 200m at the 2023 World Championships, was charged with an anti-doping rule violation by USADA shortly before the Olympics but his case was expedited to give him the best possible chance to compete at the Games.
Knighton was consequently cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent arbitrator and the American sprinter eventually finished fourth in the 200m in Paris.
Knighton testified that the source of trenbolone in his doping sample was contaminated oxtail that had been purchased by his girlfriend’s mother from a bakery in Brandon, Florida.
The use of trenbolone is widespread in the USA and Canada, up to 90% of the animals raised for domestic production of meat have received at least one treatment with growth promoters. Trenbolone is administered to farm animals as a single subcutaneous implant that is required to be inserted beneath the skin in the middle one third of the ear.
When Knighton informed USADA of the source of his positive test, USADA visited the bakery and obtained a sample of the oxtail. The sample returned a positive result for trenbolone metabolites.
The USADA investigator also obtained a copy of the bakery’s purchase receipt for the oxtail, and the bakery manager explained that they had received the shipment before Knighton’s failed the contentious doping test on April 12th 2024.
Upon inspection of the receipt, as well as the shipment packaging, it was confirmed that the meat came from the Sukarne meat processing facility in Nicaragua.
The independent arbitrator ruled that Knighton had clearly demonstrated the source of his positive test, and that he had acted without fault or negligence.
“The meal was not even intended for his consumption. He ate a meal that had been purchased for his girlfriend by her mother,” read the decision as an example of his innocence.
Knighton was not dealt a period of suspension.
However, if the AIU’s appeal is successful, and Knighton is banned for longer than three months, the time between his positive test and Paris 2024, he will likely become the first US athlete to be disqualified from those Olympics.
In 2021, the Swiss sprinter Alex Wilson was banned for four years from sport after testing positive for trenbolone but his case differed drastically from Knighton’s.
It emerged during a US criminal investigation that Wilson had been told to argue contamination by the same man who had provided him with doping substances before the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
“LIRA and a co- conspirator not named herein ("CC-1") discussed, among other things and via electronic communication, the fact that the Swiss Athlete [Alex Wilson] should claim that his recent positive drug test result for the presence of a particular steroid was caused by the consumption of beef”, read one of the court documents.
Lira has since been sentenced to prison for US authorities for supplying athletes, included a yet-to-be-named British athlete, with drugs before the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
Nonetheless the facts of Wilson’s case were still dealt with fairly and diligently, and a WADA expert disagreed with his defence because she testified that trenbolone injections behind the ear were not likely to lead to a positive drug test.
In Erriyon Knighton’s case, his expert witnesses testified that some meat is wrongly injected, for example in the tail, and this can lead to positive drug tests.
“Dr. Decloedt referred to experiments with volunteers which have shown that the consumption of meat from hormone treated animals or meat naturally containing anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) can lead to the detection of this anabolic steroid or its metabolite(s) in the urine of the person consuming the meat,” read paragraph 76 of the reasoned decision.
I publish Long Reads on doping in sport, along with a bi-weekly press round-up in which I summarise all of the latest doping news from the last seven days.
The Town Square is a place where I cover recent anti-doping issues, and answer any questions my subscribers have about my longer doping investigations. It also has resources to learn about doping in sports (link).
Interesting - I’d love to know what you think about the Ben Johnson scandal