The doping case involving Erriyon Knighton will be headed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as Knighton lawyers believe the sprinter is caught between a continued rift involving anti-doping agencies.
The Athletics Integrity Unit said on Wednesday that it will appeal the “no-fault” verdict handed down by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency shortly before trials in July. Knighton went to the Paris Olympics as part of Team USA and qualified for the 200m final. He finished fourth in 19.99s, behind teammate Noah Lyles.
Knighton tested positive for a banned drug Trenbolone and claimed that he ate contaminated meat prior to trials. He said he ate oxtail from a bakery in Florida that was responsible for his flagged test. Trenbolone is a steroid used to increase muscle growth and appetite in livestock.
“The very public battle between WADA and USADA, which has recently caught the attention of the IOC, rightly leads to the question of whether U.S. athletes like Erriyon Knighton are collateral damage in a series of coordinated efforts against USADA’s attacks,” said Knighton’s attorney, Howard Jacobs.
Knighton was specifically mentioned by anti-doping officials in China who claimed that U.S. athletes and their Chinese counterparts are being held to different standards. In recent years there have been far more cases involving positive tests of Chinese athletes that have faced stringent guidelines from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
USADA and WADA have had a contentious relationship after WADA permitted 23 Chinese swimmers to compete in the Paris Games — and Chinese won 12 medals. The swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication and some were among those who won in competition.
Chinese athletics officials were adamant that the positive tests were because of contamination.
Meat from the bakery that Knighton made the purchase was tested by USADA and a independent arbitration panel handed down the no-fault decision. The panel ruled that the meat contained trace amounts of Trenbolone and could have trigged his positive test.
On Wednesday, USADA CEO Travis Tygart detailed the contrasts of how the organization dealt with Knighton’s case and the methods WADA took with the Chinese swimmers’ positive tests.
“When Knighton tested positive for a low level of trenbolone during an out-of-competition test, we provisionally suspended him, tested his B sample, and charged him with a potential anti-doping rule violation,” Tygart’s statement read.
Tygart added, “WADA allowed China not to notify the athletes of the positive tests; neither China nor WADA enforced the mandatory provisional suspension rules; athletes were not able to have their B samples analyzed; and both WADA and China failed to find the source of the TMZ that they want the world to believe magically appeared in the kitchen. TMZ is a controlled drug not found in food, the environment, the atmosphere, or hotel kitchens.”
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