US Sprint Star Hit With Four-Year Ban After Usain Bolt Tipped Him For Greatness
An athletics star previously praised by Usain Bolt has received a four-year ban from competition.
American sprinter Erriyon Knighton, who competes in 100 metres and 200 metres, tested positive for a banned substance days before last year's US Olympic trials but was permitted to compete.
Having been provisionally suspended, he received a no-fault violation after an arbitrator found that he likely consumed the banned substance from contaminated meat, and therefore bore no fault or negligence over the use and presence of a banned substance.
Knighton subsequently qualified for the 200-metre event at Paris 2024 and finished in fourth place in the final.
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The then 20-year-old claimed that the presence of a metabolite of the banned steroid trenbolone was due to eating oxtail at a restaurant in Florida.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) appealed the arbitrator's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
And after a hearing took place in June, CAS have now announced that Knighton will serve a four-year period of ineligibility from competition.
The ban will start from September 12, 2025, with credit earned for the time he served while on provisional suspension between April 12 and June 19, 2024.
He will be eligible to return in July 2029 - meaning he will miss the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
CAS partially rejected a request from the World Anti-Doping Agency and World Athletics to expunge Knighton's results from March 26, 2024 to the present day.
He has only been disqualified from events up to April 12, 2024 - the date of his initial provisional suspension - meaning the 21-year-old will keep his fourth place result from Paris 2024.
According to a CAS release, both WADA and WA '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'.
CAS 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'.
What did Usain Bolt say about Knighton?
Speaking on the 'Obi One Podcast', hosted by former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel, in July 2024, eight-time Olympic gold medallist Bolt spoke highly of Knighton and said he 'had my attention for a while'.
The Jamaican noted Knighton's 200-metre personal best of 19.49 - an American junior record - set in 2022, and added: "He's only just turning 20. So he was pretty good.
"But it's all about developing the talent. You have to find a good coach, someone to nurture, and understand how to nurture, the talent and help to build that talent."
Ryan Smart