Shelby Houlihan, the American record-holder in the 1500 and 5,000 meters, is facing a four-year ban from competition after failing a drug test. She will not run in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.
In a Zoom press conference hosted by her team, the Bowerman Track Club, Houlihan, her coaches, and her attorney vigorously disagreed with the decision from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) and said she had been unfairly accused after ingesting contaminated pork.
Houlihan’s lawyer, Paul Greene, said she tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic-androgenic steroid, on December 15, 2020, and was notified of the positive test on January 14, 2021.
Houlihan said she never knowingly ingested the substance, and she thinks the positive test came from eating a burrito with pig organ meat from a food truck near her home in Beaverton, Oregon, 10 hours before the test.
The level of nandrolone found in her test was extremely low, Greene said, so low that it became impossible to distinguish where it came from.
Houlihan, reading from a prepared statement and fighting tears, said she did everything she could to prove her innocence, including having her hair tested and taking a polygraph test.
“On June 11, I received the news that the CAS [the Court of Arbitration for Sport] did not accept my explanation of what had occurred and had subsequently banned me from the sport for four years,” Houlihan said on the press conference.
The AIU, which conducts drug testing for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), “simply concluded that I was a cheater,” she said.
“I feel betrayed by the sport I loved,” she said. “I want to be very clear: I’ve never taken any performance-enhancing substances. ... I will not accept a four-year ban for something I didn’t and would not ever do.”
Houlihan’s coaches, Jerry Schumacher and Shalane Flanagan, also spoke on the Zoom call.
“Over the course of the past six months, I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to know about drug testing, the procedures, and organizations that govern our sport,” Schumacher said in a statement that he read during the press conference. “What I’ve learned has eroded all the faith I had in their ability to fairly serve and protect clean athletes. Throughout this process we were confident that the truth would lead to justice. What I’ve come to learn instead is that anti-doping authorities are okay with convicting innocent athletes so long as nine out of 10 convictions are legitimate. That is wrong.
“Our drug testing tech is becoming so sensitive,” he continued, “that labs are catching increasing numbers of clean athletes.”
Brett Clothier, head of the AIU, said in an emailed statement to Runner’s World:
“The Athletics Integrity Unit oversees an anti-doping program for top-level international track and field athletes and applies the World Anti-Doping Code equally to athletes from all over the world. Each case is treated objectively in accordance with the WADA Code provisions. After being charged by the AIU, Ms. Houlihan’s case was heard by a three-member panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which made its decision after hearing evidence and arguments from the athlete’s lawyers and the AIU. CAS has informed us that the full arbitral award with grounds for the decision will be issued in due course.”
Houlihan can make another appeal to a Swiss tribunal, but that process takes months or years. Her ban went into effect on January 14, 2021, at this point is expected to last until January 13, 2025.
Houlihan, 28, has been a dominant talent in the middle distances for the U.S. in recent years. She set the 1500-meter American record of 3:54.99 in October 2019 at the world championships in Doha, where she finished fourth.
In 2020, while all major competition opportunities had been canceled due to the pandemic, her team hosted a series of intrasquad meets. On July 10, Houlihan ran 14:23.92 for 5,000 meters, breaking her own American record of 14:34.45 from 2018.
She has not appeared in race results since August 2020, when she ran an intrasquad 800 meters in 2:01.08. This spring, she was thought to be battling nagging injuries, which kept her from racing. In fact, she was also serving a provisional ban.
In her first Olympic appearance, in 2016, Houlihan finished 11th in the 5,000 meters in 15:08.89.
Houlihan’s absence from the Trials in the 1500 meters leaves a void that could be filled with any number of women. Elle Purrier of New Balance Boston was already the clear favorite in the event, by virtue of the U.S.-leading 3:58.36 she ran in May.
But that leaves two additional spots up for grabs. Jenny Simpson, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, has not raced up to her usual standards so far this spring. Shannon Rowbury, the other member of the U.S. 1500-meter delegation in 2016, withdrew from the Trials due to injury.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
