Erriyon Knighton has been given a four-year ban after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against him after he was given an appeal over a doping violation.
Knighton was suspended in May 2024 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for a metabolite of the anabolic steroid trenbolone. He claimed the presence of the substance was from contaminated meat he ate — and following an appeal it was decided he “bore no fault or negligence”.
But on Friday, the CAS ruled against this appeal and has sided with appeals from World Athletics and the World Anti-Doping Agency to uphold the suspension.
“WADA – and World Athletics – appealed against the first instance decision of a U.S. tribunal that found Mr. Knighton had established that his positive sample resulted from the consumption of contaminated oxtail meat and should therefore benefit from a finding of ‘No Fault or Negligence’ for his Anti-Doping Rule Violation,” WADA said in a statement.
Trenbolone is a prohibited substance and appears on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list.
The ruling by the CAS brings a conclusion to a long process involving Knighton over the details of his explanation regarding the banned substance and the push by World Athletics and the WADA to not let the appeal stand.
Knighton, the 2023 World Championship 200m silver medallist, will not eligible to return to competition until July 2029 and the provisional suspension had already started from June 2024.
Both World Athletics and WADA pressed CAS to hand Knighton, the maximum penalty for this type of violation.
“During its appeal to CAS, WADA brought forward several experts, including some who had given evidence for USADA in the first instance proceedings, who were able to demonstrate to the CAS Panel that meat contamination was not a plausible explanation for how the prohibited substance was found to be in the athlete’s system,” WADA continues in its statement.
Meanwhile, USADA has accepted the ruling and will not appear the CAS decision despite reversing the initial provisional suspension last year and finding that Knighton’s explanation was credible.
