DOHA, Qatar — Following a Tuesday night practice ahead of the IAAF World Track and Field Championships, 100-meter favorite Christian Coleman maintained that he is innocent of doping after missed drug tests put him in danger of being suspended for the world championships and the 2020 Olympic Games.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency dropped the potential two-year ban for on a technicality involving the timing of one of three missed drug tests, making Coleman eligible to compete.
“I don’t really know what else to say — I explained the situation,” he said. “I don’t take any performance-enhancing drugs. I don’t take anything legal or illegal. I just work hard in my God-given talent and abilities.”
Coleman has not tested positive for any performance-enhancing drug, but he could have been banned for having three “whereabouts failures” in a 12-month period. Whereabout failures are issued when athletes either fail to provide the agency with their location or aren’t where they said they were when a tester shows up.
The World Anti Doping Agency backdated a missed test from June 2018 to be officially recorded on April 1 instead.
In a 22-minute video posted to YouTube explaining the reports, Coleman slammed USADA for the situation.
“It’s a shame on USADA, the fact that this was public knowledge, the fact that they didn’t know their own rules, and the fact they expect athletes to know the rules but they can’t follow their own,” he said.
Coleman said he understands why people were skeptical when the report surfaced after familiarizing himself over the past weeks with the history of U.S. sprinters such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, who were embroiled in doping controversies.
“If you study track and you know the history, and then you see this headline and me running fast times, you can just put two and two together and make up an assumption,” he said.
Coleman said he’d need to remember to update his application with USADA to avoid potential whereabout failures in the future. He still has two whereabouts failures, and a third in the 12-month period could again trigger a potential ban.
Amid the controversy and brief uncertainty surrounding his participation at worlds, Coleman maintained his preparation for the event in Doha, which will take place more than month later than usual to alleviate the impact of the region’s intense heat.
“I haven’t been distracted, I’ve just been locked in,” he said. “This whole season was different for everybody. Everybody had a different plan, a different setup than they’re used to.”
Coleman, who said usually he’d compete about two weeks before a world event in order to peak, had to switch up his plan by getting in heavier lifts and then tapering off over the past few weeks.
Coleman finished second at the 2017 world championships behind fellow American Justin Gatlin, now 37. Coleman, 23, said the two have mostly limited their interactions to their practices for the U.S. 4×100 relay team.
“I think it’s just kind of like a silent, competitive type of rivalry,” Coleman said.
Though Gatlin enters with a championship pedigree, the field features other contenders like reigning 100- and 200-meter NCAA champion Divine Oduduru of Nigeria.
“I try not to just focus on one person,” he said. “It’s a world-class field, so anybody can take it.”
With the event set to open with preliminary rounds Friday evening, the first day of competition, Coleman is excited just to be on the track after a whirlwind of a month.
“I’m just a regular guy who had talent and the wherewithal to be able to hone that into something I can make money doing,” he said. “I’m just really blessed the situation was resolved.”
