American sprinter Erriyon Knighton receives four-year ban for doping violation, set to miss 2028 Olympics

Two-time Olympic finalist sprinter Erriyon Knighton received a four-year ban for violating anti-doping rules and is set to miss the 2028 Los Angeles Games. The Court of Arbitration for Sport partially upheld appeals from World Athletics and the World Anti-Doping Agency on Friday, approving their requests for a maximum four-year ban for the American athlete.

Knighton was charged in 2024 with the violation when a doping test found the presence of epitrenbolone, a WADA-prohibited anabolic steroid, in his system. He served a provisional suspension last year, and that time served from April 12 to June 19 will count toward his four-year suspension.

A United States tribunal previously ruled that Knighton should not be banned as he was not at fault nor negligent in his use of the substance. It determined that he was contaminated by eating meat. WA and WADA appealed the decision and requested that the court disqualify all of his results since March 2024. The court partially granted that request, disqualifying only the results from March 26 to April 12.

"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," the court said in a statement. "Knighton argued that the ADRV was caused by the ingestion of an oxtail dish contaminated with trenbolone.

"After considering the scientific evidence, 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 (positive test)."

The ruling comes just one day before the start of the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. Knighton took the bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships in the 200-meter race and won silver in 2023. The American became the youngest individual sprint medalist in World Championships history with the third-place finish in 2022. He also holds the world under-18 and under-20 records in the 200 meters and is the sixth-fastest athlete in the event regardless of age.

Knighton, 21, already has two Olympics appearances in his career. He finished fourth in the 200 meters at both the 2020 Tokyo Games and 2024 Paris Games. He received the Rising Star honor in 2021 and 2022 at the World Athletics Awards, becoming the first men's athlete in history to win twice.