WORLD CHAMPION SPRINTER Christian Coleman has been suspended for two years for missing three doping tests in a 12-month period. The World Athletics Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) decision bars Coleman, World Ranked No. 1 in the 100 in 2018 and ’19, from competition effective May 14, 2020, which means, should the ban stick, that he will miss the Tokyo Olympics next summer.
The “third strike” for Coleman—who successfully appealed a whereabouts failure case lodged against him by USADA in the summer of 2019—was a missed test on December 9 of last year. Doping samplers maintain Coleman, who presented evidence he had been Christmas shopping near his home, was absent from his residence during the appointed hour in which he was to be available for testing on that day.
The star sprinter now has 30 days in which to file an appeal the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The 3-member AIU panel that levied the sanction indicated in its decision there is no evidence Coleman has ever used banned substances but termed his actions on the evening in question “entirely careless, perhaps even reckless.”
Click here to read the full AIU decision.
You will find T&FN reportage on the 2019 USADA case here and USADA’s statement on the earlier matter.