Coleman banned 2 years, to miss Olympics

MONACO — Men’s 100-meter world champion Christian Coleman was banned for two years on Tuesday and lost his chance to succeed Usain Bolt as the fastest man at the Olympic Games.

Track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit said it banned the American sprinter for two years, until May 13, 2022, because of three violations of doping control rules.

Coleman missed two visits by sample collection officials and failed to file correct information on another occasion, all in 2019 — the year he won his first world title.

“We see this case as involving behavior by the athlete as very careless at best and reckless at worst,” the three-person judging panel said in its published ruling.

Coleman can appeal his ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Coleman, 24, had been provisionally suspended from competition since May. Weeks later, details of his three so-called “whereabouts failures” were revealed.

Athletes face a two-year ban if they have three violations in a 12-month period.

A previous similar case against Coleman was dropped weeks before the 2019 world championships in Doha, Qatar.

That cleared him to take gold in the individual 100 and 400 relay, and establish him as favorite to win titles at the Tokyo Olympics, which have been postponed to next year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Bolt won the marquee 100 at the past three Summer Games.

The judges said there was no suggestion Coleman ever took a banned substance.

However, even the panel noted Coleman was in a pool of top-level athletes targeted for no-notice testing since 2016 and “has received anti-doping education for a number of years.”

A violation means an athlete either did not fill out forms telling authorities where they could be found, or that they weren’t where they said they would be when testers arrived.