Doping’s puzzling rules: McNeal’s case poses another hurdle

EUGENE, Ore. — Were it not for Shelby Houlihan and her head-scratching case involving a pork burrito, the talk of doping — and, thus, track and field — on Saturday might very well have been Brianna McNeal.

Like Houlihan, McNeal, the defending Olympic champion in the 100-meter hurdles, has been hit with a ban that places her future in jeopardy. Like Houlihan, McNeal’s case has wound through the international drug-testing agency and made its way to the the supreme court for sports.

Unlike Houlihan, McNeal had a place on the starting line at the Olympic trials Saturday, where she finished first in her qualifying heat, even though she has been found guilty of a doping-rules violation.

It’s one of the several areas at which the details of their cases diverge. But what they have in common is true of so many doping cases: They are intricate, confusing, sometimes ridiculous and, when they blow up the way Houlihan’s did earlier this week, they portray the entire system as rigged, or unfair, or in the worst telling of it, corrupt.

“The perceived confusion is understandable and unfortunately undermines the confidence in the system,” said Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. “But the rule of law has to be applied fairly and equally despite the perception, and we can all have confidence in that.”

But having confidence in the system almost always means needing to take a deep dive into the particulars of a case, not a quick scroll through social media for opinions on who’s right and wrong.

Unlike Houlihan, McNeal is not accused of actually using a performance-enhancing drug. Instead, she is accused of “tampering within the results management process,” a charge related to a so-called whereabouts violation. If there’s gray area in Houlihan’s case — there’s a compelling argument that people can test positive after eating certain kinds of meat — then whereabouts cases are even more difficult to nail down.

“Brianna McNeal appealed the (decision) because she is not a doper, and firmly believes that she did not violate any anti-doping rule,” her attorney, Howard Jacobs, said in a statement this month that accompanied the announcement that she would run at the trials.

The full details of her case have not been released. After her race Saturday, McNeal conceded the uncertainty has weighed on her.