{"id":35790,"date":"2021-06-15T10:33:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T10:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/?p=35790"},"modified":"2021-06-15T10:33:33","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T10:33:33","slug":"shelby-houlihan-american-middle-distance-runner-blames-burrito-for-positive-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bengalnewstimes.com\/?p=35790","title":{"rendered":"Shelby Houlihan: American middle distance runner blames burrito for positive test"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Shelby Houlihan is the US record holder in the 1500m and 5,000m<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

American middle distance runner Shelby Houlihan has been banned from athletics for four years after testing positive for a prohibited substance – which she blamed on a burrito.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The 28-year-old says she was told in January the anabolic steroid nandrolone had been found in a doping sample.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Olympian Houlihan said it may have come from eating a pork burrito, which she said could lead to a false positive for nandrolone, the night before her test.<\/span><\/p>\n

She has denied ever doping.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Athletics Integrity Unit confirmed she was handed the four-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday, backdated to 14 January.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I feel completely devastated, lost, broken, angry, confused and betrayed by the very sport that I’ve loved and poured myself into,” Houlihan said in a <\/span>statement on social media<\/span>external-link<\/title><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I want to be very clear. I have never taken any performance enhancing substances.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Houlihan, the US record holder in the 1500m and 5,000m, said she had “never even heard” of nandrolone, which can help to increase muscle mass.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I have since learned that it has long been understood by Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) that eating pork can lead to a false positive for nandrolone, since certain types of pigs produce it naturally in high amounts. Pig organ meat (offal) has the highest levels of nandrolone,” she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“In the following five days after being notified, I put together a food log of everything that I consumed the week of that December 15th test. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We concluded that the most likely explanation was a burrito purchased and consumed approximately 10 hours before that drug test from an authentic Mexican food truck that serves pig offal near my house in Beaverton, Oregon. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I notified the AIU that I believed this was the source.”<\/span><\/p>\n

She added: “I did everything I could to prove my innocence. I passed a polygraph test. I had my hair sampled by one of the world’s foremost toxicologists.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Wada agreed that test proved that there was no build up of this substance in my body, which there would have been if I were taking it regularly.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The four-year ban will see Houlihan, who competed at the Rio Olympics in 2016, miss both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Games.<\/span><\/p>\n

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