US Olympic 1500m contender Houlihan banned for four years despite burrito excuse
The US 1500m and 5,000m record holder Shelby Houlihan has been banned for four years for doping after her claim that she ate a contaminated pork burrito 10 hours before a positive test for nandrolone was rejected.
In a statement Houlihan, who ran an area record 3min 54.99sec over 1500m to finish fourth at the 2019 world championships and was considered a leading Olympic medal contender for this year’s Tokyo Games, claimed that she had “never even heard of nandrolone” when she was first told of the news by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in January.
The 28-year-old insisted that ingesting the anabolic steroid must have inadvertently come from eating a burrito “from an authentic Mexican food truck that serves pig offal near my house in Beaverton, Oregon” 10 hours before a 6am drugs test last December.
Houlihan’s team had agreed with the AIU to hold an expedited hearing at the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) in Lausanne, in the hope of proving her innocence before the US trials that begin on Friday, but went public after hearing Cas’s verdict had gone against her.
“I did everything I could to prove my innocence,” Houlihan said. “I passed a polygraph test. I had my hair sampled by one of the world’s foremost toxicologists. The World Anti-Doping Agency agreed that the test proved that there was no build-up of this substance in my body, which there would have been if I were taking it regularly.
“Nothing moved the lab from their initial snap decision. Instead, they simply concluded that I was a cheater and that a steroid was ingested orally, but not regularly. I believe my explanation fits the facts much better – because it’s true. I want to be very clear. I have never taken any performance-enhancing substances.”
Cas is expected to release its full reasoning in the coming days, but Houlihan’s lawyer Paul Greene said an appeal to the Swiss federal tribunal was being considered.
Houlihan’s 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,” he said.
“To the AIU and Wada: Shame on you. Shame on you for not caring about the truth. Shame on you for using athletes in a political chess match. You got it very wrong this time and that is not OK. It’s not OK to be right nine out of 10 times when deciding to execute someone’s athletic life and dreams.”
However Brett Clothier, the head of the AIU, said that Houlihan’s case had been decided on its merits by an independent panel.
“After being charged by the AIU, Ms Houlihan’s case was heard by a threemember panel at Cas, which made its decision after hearing evidence and arguments from the athlete’s lawyers and the AIU,” he said.
The chief executive of Morgan Stanley has become the latest US banking boss to call for an end to remote working, telling his New York staff that anyone who feels safe going out to a restaurant should return to the office.
James Gorman admitted that the bank would take a different approach in countries such as India or the UK – where fewer than 25% of its 5,000 London staff have been going to work in person – due to stricter Covid restrictions.
However, in the US, where nearly 90% of staff in its New York headquarters had been vaccinated, the chief executive said he was issuing a “very strong” message to staff to get back to their desks by Labor Day on 6 September.
“If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office. And we want you in the office,” Gorman said during a financial services conference organised by the bank on Monday.
“Make no mistake about it: we do our work inside Morgan Stanley offices. And that’s where we teach, that’s where our interns learn, that’s how we develop people,” the chief executive added. “That’s where you build all the soft cues that go with having a successful career that aren’t just about Zoom presentations.”
He also said bankers could not expect large paycheques if they worked away from Wall Street. “If you want to get paid New York rates, you work in New York. None of this: ‘I’m in Colorado … and getting paid like I’m sitting in New York City.’ Sorry, that doesn’t work.”
The executive claimed he was not “dictating” a return to office, in contrast to Goldman Sachs, which required US staff to return to their desks on Monday. “But [on] Labor Day, I’ll be very disappointed if people haven’t found their way into the office,” Gorman said. “Then we’ll have a different kind of conversation.”
Morgan Stanley’s chief executive is the latest US banking boss to hit out at remote working, which has left whitecollar workers running some of the world’s largest businesses from their kitchen tables.
The Goldman Sachs chief executive, David Solomon, made waves after he called remote working an “aberration”, while JP Morgan’s boss, Jamie Dimon, said it was poor practice for new and younger staff, as well as employees who wanted “to hustle” – suggesting promotions might be harder to clinch for staff who worked from home.
A number of European banks, including UK lenders that are more focused on high-street banking, have offered more flexible arrangements for staff. NatWest Group has said it expects just 13% of its 64,000 employees to work from the office full-time. Meanwhile, HSBC is planning for thousands of its staff to work remotely long-term and expects to cut its global office footprint by 40% as a result.