Shelby Houlihan: American center distance runner blames burrito for optimistic check
American middle distance runner Shelby Houlihan says she has been banned from athletics for four years after testing positive for a prohibited substance – which she blamed on a burrito.
The 28-year-old says she was told in January the anabolic steroid nandrolone had been found in a doping sample.
Olympian Houlihan said it may have come from eating a pork burrito, which she said could lead to a false positive for nandrolone, the night before her test.
She has denied ever doping.
She says she was handed the four-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) on Friday.
“I feel completely devastated, lost, broken, angry, confused and betrayed by the very sport that I’ve loved and poured myself into,” Houlihan said in a statement on social media.
“I want to be very clear. I have never taken any performance enhancing substances.”
Houlihan, the US record holder in the 1500m and 5,000m, said she had “never even…
