Team USA sprint star Erriyon Knighton has received a four-year doping ban that almost certainly rules him out of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Knighton, a 200m world silver medalist in 2023 and a two-time Olympic finalist, was first charged with an Anti-Doping Rule Violation in May 2024 when an out-of-competition test revealed the presence of trenbolone – a prohibited anabolic steroid which is used in livestock farming.
The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) attempted to sanction him, but an Arbitration Tribunal ruled that he bore no fault or negligence and therefore should not be banned, clearing him to compete in the US Olympic trials and last year’s Paris Games.
However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Friday that its judges have upheld separate appeals by the World Anti-Doping Agency and track and field investigators which asked for a maximum four-year ban.
CAS said Knighton’s ban, which is cut for the more than two months of a provisional suspension he served last year, begins on Friday. It should therefore expire in early July 2029.
The Georgia-born sprinter had been cleared last year to run in Paris when USADA accepted the ‘no-fault’ ruling based on the explanation he was contaminated by oxtail from a bakery in central Florida.
Erriyon Knighton is set to miss the LA Olympics in 2028 after receiving a four-year doping ban
The American sprint star has been banned after testing positive for a prohibited steroid
Yet CAS said in a statement on Friday: ‘WA and WADA considered that the evidence submitted by the athlete and his explanations of a meat contamination scenario fell short of the required proof of source and were statistically impossible.
‘Knighton argued that the ADRV was caused by the ingestion of an oxtail dish contaminated with trenbolone.
‘The CAS Panel determined that there is no proof that would support the conclusion that oxtail imported into the USA would be likely to contain trenbolone residues at the level required to have caused the athlete’s Adverse Analytical Finding.’
In the French capital, Knighton placed fourth in the 200m for the second straight Summer Games. CAS said he is not disqualified from that race and keeps his fourth-place finish.
Although it upheld the appeal for a four-year ban, CAS only partially granted their request to disqualify all his results since March 2024. He has been disqualified retroactively from March 26-April 12, 2024.
Knighton did not qualify in the 200m for Team USA at the world championships which open Saturday in Tokyo. He has silver and bronze medals in that event from the past two worlds.
