Runner Houlihan blames pork burrito for 4-year drug-related ban

Sports Desk, Jun 15 (EFE).- US runner Shelby Houlihan has been handed a four-year ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for testing positive for performance enhancing substance nandrolone, which she blamed on a burrito.

The 28-year-old was notified of the positive result of the test she underwent on 15 December 2020 just over a month after.

According to the athlete, the test was carried out the day after she had eaten a burrito of pork meat, which can contain nandrolone and, she added, could have triggered a false positive.

She turned to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to prove that the banned anabolic substance entered her system through the meat, but in vain.

Houlihan, who came fourth at the 2019 World Athletics Championships, clung to the same arguments as she confirmed on social media she had been notified of the punishment.

“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,” she posted to her social media accounts.

 “Nothing moved the lab from their initial snap decision. Instead, they simply concluded that I was a cheater and that a steroid was ingested orally, but not regularly,” she added.

“I feel completely devastated, lost, broken, angry, confused and betrayed by the very sport that I’ve loved and poured myself into just to see how good I was,” she continued.

If the ban holds, she will not be eligible for the next two Olympics in Tokyo and Paris. EFE

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