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≡ AIU AND ADAEJAH HODGE ≡
If the situation surrounding British Virgin Islands sprinter Adaejah Hodge – who just won the NCAA women’s Indoor 200 m title for Georgia on Saturday, with the Athletics Integrity Unit announcing a two-year ban on Monday – sounds confusing, it’s not.
But it was handled with precision, privately.
As a high school sprint star at the Monteverde Academy in Florida, Hodge was a Paris Olympian in 2024 and then competed in Lima (PER) at the World Athletics U-20 Championships, finishing second in the women’s 100 m and winning the 200 m. But she also produced positive tests for GW501516 sulfone and GW501516 sulfoxide, classified as metabolic modulators and banned under the World Anti-Doping Code.
The Athletics Integrity Unit announced her case results on Monday (16th), explaining that she had been suspended (apparently secretly) from the date of her positive test in Lima on 28 August 2024, and her results from the World U-20s were nullified. From there:
● Hodge did not compete following the World U-20s during the remainder of 2024 and not at all in 2025.
● The AIU agreed that Hodge did not ingest the prohibited substances intentionally and was not trying to gain an advantage.
● Although the AIU announcement of her sanction did not come until Monday, she was, in fact, eligible earlier. The AIU case note stated that the “Parties agree that a period of 7 months of the otherwise applicable period of Ineligibility in the Athlete’s case shall be suspended for Substantial Assistance in accordance with Rule 10.7.1 ADR. The Athlete therefore became eligible from and including 28 January 2026.”
Despite the public announcement of the case results on 16 March, Georgia knew about this much earlier and she debuted on 30 January as a redshirt frosh, taking the world lead in the women’s 200 m in 22.53, and continued through the indoor season. She won the SEC 200 m title on 28 February and was second in the NCAA 60 m and won the 200 m on 14 March.
She was eligible, but no one knew it. As the NCAA is not a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, but maintains its own eligibility standards, it does not have to pay attention to what the AIU is doing. But it seemed odd.
Georgia followed the assigned sanctions perfectly and Hodge returned to competition exactly as allowed. They knew where the AIU stood, but no one else did.
Observed: The Athletics Integrity Unit has a hard-won, enviable reputation for relentlessly pursuing doping cases and making the results public, including at each step of the suspension and sanctions process.
However, in this case, the AIU failed to inform the public and it is not to the AIU’s credit that no public announcement of a doping case which had ended on 28 January was withheld until 16 March. Georgia certainly knew.
Further, Hodge was not shown in the AIU’s “Global List of Ineligible Persons” through 1 March 2026, despite the fact that no resolution of the case had been announced by then.
A check of a copy of the AIU ineligible list as of 1 January 2026 did not show her on that list either.
What went on here?
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