Tokyo 2020: world 100m champion Christian Coleman suspended over missed drug test
- The 24-year-old competes in both the 100 and 200m sprint and is the reigning world champion
- Coleman is seen as a serious contender in the 100m at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which will take place in 2021
Reigning world 100m champion Christian Coleman was provisionally suspended on Wednesday over a missed drugs test, putting him at risk of a two-year ban that would rule him out of next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
The American sprinter is “suspended temporarily from participating in any competition or activity”, said the Athletics Integrity Unit, World Athletics’ anti-doping arm.
Coleman, who only narrowly avoided being banned last year after three violations of anti-doping “whereabouts” rules across 2018 and 2019, revealed details of his latest missed test on Twitter.
The world’s fastest man, who clocked 9.76sec to win 100m gold at last year’s World Championships in Doha, said he had unsuccessfully challenged an AIU finding that he missed a test on December 9, 2019.
“And now this might result in me being suspended from other filing failures that occurred well over a year ago at this point,” Coleman said. The 24-year-old is now barred from competition pending a hearing under World Athletics anti-doping rules, the AIU website said.