American athlete Shelby Houlihan lost her appeal against a four-year drugs ban

American middle-distance runner Shelby Houlihan has lost her appeal against a four-year drugs ban. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said her defense “presupposes a cascade of factual and scientific improbabilities”.

The American record holder in 1,500m and 5,000m missed the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for a banned steroid. She blamed the result on eating contaminated meat in a burrito. She argued her positive test came after eating pork from an uncastrated boar, but the CAS panel said the argument “simply cannot be accepted”.

Shelby Houlihan will miss the 2022 World Championships in Oregon and the Paris 2024 Olympics, with her ban due to end on January 14, 2025.

Shelby Houlihan is an American middle-distance runner. At Arizona State University, she was the NCAA 1,500m champion in 2014 and made the final in the 5,000m at the 2016 Summer Olympics.