USADA Withdraws Anti-Doping Case Against Christian Coleman

By Adam Kopet

Christian Coleman has been made eligible to compete immediately after the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) dropped its case against the star sprinter Monday.

USADA had accused Coleman of three whereabouts failures in the span of 12 months, a violation that carries a two-year suspension.

Elite athletes that fall under the control of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are required to file information about where they will be for at least an hour every day. Failure to file or not being present for drug testing is considered a whereabouts failure. 

In Coleman's case, at issue was the date of a whereabouts failure in 2018. He had failed to accurately file his whereabouts plan at the start of the second quarter, beginning April 1, 2018. He missed a test on June 6, 2018, but a note on the report specified that a possible error was made in his April 1 filing.

Coleman has filed his whereabouts each quarter since the 2018 failure, but he has missed drug tests on Jan. 16 and April 26, 2019.

Had Coleman's first infraction been registered as a June 6, 2018 infraction, that would make three whereabouts failures in a 12-month period. However, if the infraction was counted as happening on April 1, 2018, then he would only have two infractions in the current 12-month period.

USADA sought the interpretation of the rules from WADA. WADA responded Friday that Coleman's 2018 infraction should be considered to have occurred on April 1. Based on that information, USADA withdrew its case against Coleman. The IAAF does have the right to appeal, should it choose to.

Coleman can immediately begin competing again, including competing at the IAAF World Outdoor Championships later this month. However, he has already missed the Birmingham Diamond League meeting and he was unable to compete in the Diamond League 100-meter final last week in Zurich.