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≡ ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATIONS ≡
It has been a tough year for 20-year-old sprint star Erriyon Knighton of the U.S., a two-time World Championships medal winner in 2022 and 2023.
He’s run in a grand total of three meets so far this year: in two relays in Gainesville at the end of March, third at the Olympic Trials in June and a fourth at the Olympic 200 m in Paris on 8 August.
In the middle of all of this was a doping positive from a 26 March 2024 sample, in which Knighton tested positive for epitrenbolone, a metabolite of the anabolic steroid trenbolone and was provisionally suspended as of 12 April 2024.
At a hearing on 14 and 16 June, the United States Anti-Doping Agency asked for a four-year suspension; Knighton’s team asked for a “no-fault” funding due to the epitrenbolone being ingested from meat – oxtail – eaten by Knighton on 22-23 March at a Brandon, Florida restaurant.
The oxtail meat used by the restaurant was traced to Nicaragua and tested in the U.S., which found trenbolone to be present. The arbitrator wrote:
“Respondent has provided sufficient evidence to establish there was no intentional doping. The amount in Respondent’s sample was low.”
Moreover, the arbitrator noted the evidence assembled by Knighton to show “no fault”:
“Respondent did not just ‘plead and speculate.’ Instead, he set out ‘in a systematic way’ to establish that he was ‘a victim.’
“He established by uncontroverted evidence that meat imported into the United States is barely tested for trenbolone; the restaurant where the meal was purchased sources oxtail meat containing trenbolone; he tested negative three (3) weeks prior and after the March 26 test; he has no doping history; there is no evidence that the Prohibited Substance is micro-dosed; he takes no supplements other than a protein powder; his hair sample was negative; there was no deception detected in his polygraph test; and the explanation of what occurred with the meal purchase and his consumption of it was plausible.”
And so the arbitrator issued a 39-page decision on 18 June of a “no fault” finding, allowing Knighton to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency was not happy with the finding, but accepted it. But the case has become a cause celebre as it was cited by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency as a “whitewash” of a star U.S. athlete in a doping case.
That, in turn, raised the interest of the World Anti-Doping Agency in the case, which has also responded to the ferocious attacks on it by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency by pointing to this and other cases of contaminated meat where “no fault” findings have been made (this is hardly the case every time, just ask now-suspended U.S. women’s middle-distance star Shelby Houlihan).
But WADA does not control anti-doping inquiries in track & field. The separate, Monaco-based Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) does and last week, it announced a follow-up appeal:
“The AIU has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the case relating to Erriyon Knighton (USA).
“This appeal is against the decision of an arbitration tribunal in the United States that the Athlete established No Fault or Negligence after USADA brought charges against the Athlete for the Presence of epitrenbolone and Use of trenbolone.”
So now the case will be heard again at the Court of Arbitration for sport, but as a decision has been issued, it will be up to the AIU to prove that Knighton’s positive did not come from the ingestion of contaminated meat.
But until the hearing is held, Knighton is not suspended and can continue to compete.
¶
In the meantime, the Knighton case is being used for political purposes in the continuing war of words between the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency over the Chinese doping incident from January 2021.
In that now-infamous situation, 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, a prohibited substance under the World Anti-Doping Code. CHINADA did not impose any sanctions, investigated, and issued a finding of contamination in the kitchen in which these athletes were served meals.
USADA chief Travis Tygart has railed against the handling of the case by CHINADA and WADA, up to and including a U.S. House of Representatives sub-committee hearing. WADA and the IOC have struck back, insisting that WADA’s supreme authority in worldwide doping matters be respected.
Tygart has pointed out, in response, that he wants WADA to follow its own rules.
On 6 August, CHINADA issued its own statement during the Paris Olympic Games, in fact, while the 200 m in which Knighton was competing, was going on. In it:
“[W]hen it comes to the contamination cases of the Chinese swimmers, USADA has shown a typical double standard by trying its best to clear American athletes on one hand, but on the other hand accusing CHINADA and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of “covering up the truth” and demanding sanctions against Chinese athletes while ignoring the repeated clarifications by WADA and the report by the Independent Prosecutor.”
And the CHINADA statement runs on, repeating the same lines that it and WADA have used to slap back at the USADA:
“The Knighton case just shows that USADA’s rhetoric about fairness and clean sport runs counter to its actual practices. … [W]e urge USADA to cease fabricating false narratives, politicizing anti doping and manipulating public perception, to stop disrupting and undermining the well-functioning world anti-doping order and global governance system, and to put an end to the abuse of ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ and threatening and pressuring with so-called ‘legal means.’”
Tygart ripped right back, on the same day, including:
“What is clear by today’s release is that CHINADA will resort to misdirection and propaganda to attempt to deflect from the fact that it swept 23 positive tests for TMZ under the carpet, as well as two positive tests for metandienone or dianabol, both powerful performance-enhancing drugs.”
And Tygart pointed to the key difference between the cases:
“USADA both gave [Knight] a provisional suspension and argued that the appropriate sanction under the rules is four years.”
Observed: This is a tough time for the 20-year-old Knighton. Nevertheless, he is listed as a starter for Thursday’s Diamond League men’s 200 m in Lausanne, facing Olympic champ Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.
CHINADA’s statement has plenty of holes, but shows the desperation in many circles to try and get the U.S. to cancel the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act of 2019, which gives the U.S. Justice Department the authority to track doping activity anywhere, worldwide.
Knighton? He’s just a kid, trying to run fast.
This is only going to get rougher, for all concerned.
¶
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