Shelby Houlihan is banned four years after testing positive for anabolic steroid nandrolone had been found in a doping sample.
Houlihan has admitted that the doping ban shattered her dreams of both the Tokyo Olympics and the summer games in Paris 2024.
“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,” Houlihan said.
“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 have done everything I could to prove my innocence. I passed a lie detector test and had a toxicologist take a hair sample from me.” she added.
Houlihan insisted there was nothing wrong with her body and that the positive test result may have been due to her eating pork burrito.
The 28-year-old runner said she had never even heard of nandrolone, which can help to increase muscle mass.
“I have since learned that it has long been understood by Wada 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 has the highest levels of nandrolone,” Houlihan said.
“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.” she added.
Her coach, Jerry Schumacher, also spoke out against the verdict: “What we are witnessing here is a great tragedy in the history of American distance running.
Houlihan is the American record holder at both 1500 meters and 5000 meters. She was the NCAA 1500m champion in 2014 and made the final in the 5000m at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
