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2w ago

CAS Hands Erriyon Knighton Four-Year Doping Ban, Rejects Meat-Contamination Defense

The decision reverses a U.S. tribunal’s no-fault finding that cleared him for Paris by ruling his oxtail explanation lacked proof.

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Athletics - World Athletics Championship - Men's 200m Semi Finals - National Athletics Centre, Budapest, Hungary - August 24, 2023 Erriyon Knighton of the U.S. crosses the line to finish first in heat 3 REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo
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Overview

  • Track’s top court imposed a four-year suspension after appeals by World Athletics and WADA, overturning a U.S. panel that had cleared Knighton in 2024.
  • An out-of-competition test on March 26, 2024 found epitrenbolone, a trenbolone metabolite, leading to the anti-doping charge.
  • CAS wrote there was no evidence oxtail imported into the U.S. would likely contain trenbolone at levels to cause the positive result, calling the contamination theory statistically implausible.
  • The sanction begins Sept. 12, 2025 with credit for Knighton’s provisional suspension from April 12 to June 19, 2024, and disqualifies only his results from March 26 to April 12, 2024, leaving his Paris 200m fourth place intact.
  • The ban rules the 21-year-old out of the World Championships in Tokyo and is expected to sideline him from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, as his agent denounces the ruling and cites USADA-sourced oxtail tests that WADA says do not support contamination.