LAUSANNE: Two-time Olympic finalist Erriyon Knighton was banned for four years on Friday in a doping case of an anabolic steroid that almost certainly rules the 21-year-old United States sprinter out of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its judges upheld separate appeals by the World Anti-Doping Agency and track and field investigators which asked for a maximum four-year ban after he was cleared by a tribunal in the US.
CAS said the ban that starts Friday is cut for the more than two months of a provisional suspension Knighton served last year. The ban should expire in early July 2028, just days before the LA Olympics open.
Knighton had been cleared last year to run at the Paris Olympics when he was judged not at fault for a positive test for trenbolone, a steroid used in livestock farming.
The US Anti-Doping Agency prosecuted Knighton's original case and accepted the "no-fault" ruling based on the explanation that he was contaminated by oxtail from a bakery in central Florida.
In Paris, Knighton placed fourth in the 200 metres for the second straight Summer Games. CAS said he is not disqualified from that race.
Knighton did not qualify in the 200 for the US team at the world championships, which open Saturday in Tokyo. He has silver and bronze medals in the 200 from the past two worlds.