Shelby Houlihan Banned Four Years After Positive Test For Banned Substance | Press Conference ft. Jerry Schumacher, Shalane Flanagan

"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. I want to be very clear. I have never taken any performance-enhancing substances. And that includes that of which I am being accused. I believe in the sport and pushing your body to the limit just to see where the limit is. I’m not interested in cheating. I don’t do this for the accolades, money, or for people to know my name. I do this because I love it. I have so much fun doing it and it’s always the best part of my day.”

On Wednesday afternoon, a virtual press conference was held by the Bowerman Track Club where it was announced Shelby Houlihan, the American record holder in the 1500 meters and 5000 meters, has been suspended for four years after testing positive for the banned substance Nandrolone. The test was taken in December 2020 and she was notified of the positive test in January by the Athletics Integrity Unit. The reason she has not raced in 2021 is that she was provisionally suspended while trying to fight the case. 

Upon learning of the positive test, Houlihan logged her meals and determined that the nandrolone likely came from a burrito that she consumed the night before her test. It is estimated that the test took place 10 hours after the burrito's consumption. Lawyer Paul Greene was hired and argued that pig organ meat can serve as one of the sources for Nandrolone. Because the Athletics Integrity Unit had not charged her yet, Greene and Houlihan's team called on them to charge her with a violation so she could appeal before the start of the U.S. Olympic Trials. Last week, on June 11, she learned that her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was unsuccessful and the four-year ban was upheld. A four-year ban knocks the 28-year-old out of the Trials, the Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 World Championships in Eugene and the 2024 Olympics in Tokyo in the prime of her career. A full decision and report from the Court of Arbitration for Sport will be published when it is finalized. 

What you're about to hear is the audio from the press conference and the prepared statements from Greene, Houlihan and Bowerman Track Club coaches Jerry Schumacher and Shalane Flanagan. What follows after is questions from the media present.

You can read about the case in my story for Sports Illustrated: https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/06/15/shelby-houlihan-doping-ban-nandrolone-olympic-trials-positive-test-explained

You can watch the statements by Houlihan, Schumacher and Flanagan on the CITIUS MAG YouTube page.

Update: Here is the release from CAS that says: "Finally, the CAS Panel unanimously determined that Shelby Houlihan had failed, on the balance of probability, to establish the source of the prohibited substance"