Replay - Bowerman Track Club Shelby Houlihan Press Conference

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Below are statements provided by Bowerman Track Club.

Shelby Houlihan

Since I started running when I was 5 years old, I’ve had dreams of running  professionally, setting records, winning an Olympic gold medal and being one of  the best in the world. I have always blindly believed that I was good enough to  achieve those things.  

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve put in more time, more miles, have become more  dedicated, and have learned to genuinely love this sport. It’s what brings me the  most joy. It’s where I feel the most me. I have always done it the right way. I’ve  put my head down and just worked at being better year after year. I’ve stayed  patient and trusted that the work and consistency would show.  

I still have all of the same dreams I had when I was 5 and I’ve been incredibly  fortunate to have been able to have achieved some of them. I still have others  that I’m working towards. But the thing that truly drives me is the love and joy I  get from what I do and the curiosity to find out what my potential is.  

On January 14th, 2021, I received an email from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU),  informing me a drug testing sample that I provided on December 15th, 2020 has  returned as an Adverse Analytical Finding for a steroid called Nandrolone and  that I am therefore subject to an immediate Provisional Suspension. When I got  that email, I had to read it over about ten times and google what it was that I had  just tested positive for. I had never even heard of nandrolone.  I have since learned that it has long been understood by WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) that eating pork can lead to a false positive for nandrolone,  since certain types of pigs produce it naturally in high amounts. Pig organ meat  (offal) has the highest levels of nandrolone.  

In the following 5 days after being notified, I put together a food log of  everything that I consumed the week of that December 15th test. We concluded  that the most likely explanation was a burrito purchased and consumed  approximately 10 hours before that drug test from an authentic Mexican food  truck that serves pig offal near my house in Beaverton, Oregon. I notified the AIU  that I believed this was the source.  

Although my levels were consistent with those of subjects in studies who were  tested 10 hours after eating this source and WADA technical guidelines require  the lab to consider it when analyzing nandrolone, the lab never accounted for  this possibility. They could have reported this as an atypical finding and followed  up with further testing. The anti-doping experts I have reached out to say they  should have. I did everything I could to prove my innocence. I passed a  polygraph test. I had my hair sampled by one of the world’s foremost  toxicologists. WADA agreed that test proved that there was no build up of this  substance in my body, which there would have been if I were taking it regularly. 

Nothing moved the lab from their initial snap decision. Instead, they simply  concluded that I was a cheater and that a steroid was ingested orally, but not  regularly. I believe my explanation fits the facts much better- because it’s true. I  also believe it was dismissed without proper due process.  

On June 11th, I received the news that the Court of Arbitration did not accept  my explanation of what had occurred and has subsequently banned me from  the sport for four years.  

I feel completely devastated, lost, broken, angry, confused and betrayed by the  very sport that I’ve loved and poured myself into just to see how good I was. 

I want to be very clear. I have never taken any performance enhancing  substances. And that includes that of which I am being accused. I believe in the  sport and pushing your body to the limit just to see where the limit is. I’m not  interested in cheating. I don’t do this for the accolades, money, or for people to  know my name. I do this because I love it. I have so much fun doing it and it’s  always the best part of my day.  

This sport means everything to me. I believe doping and cheating is weak. It  shows a disbelief in yourself and not only shames you but also shows a  complete disregard for people that support you. I would never disrespect the  sport, my competitors, my teammates, my coaches, my family, my fans or  myself in this way. I love and respect this sport too much. The drive that keeps  me going is the curiosity to know how far I can push my natural limits and reach  my potential. I have always wanted to be able to stand at the top of that  Olympic podium with a gold medal around my neck knowing that I did that.  Now, I’m not sure I’ll ever get the opportunity to truly pursue that dream.  

I’m going to continue fighting to prove my innocence. I will not sit down and  accept a four year ban for something that I did not and would never do. I  absolutely respect and whole-heartedly support the fight to catch athletes who  disrespect the sport by cheating and doping. But I am not one of them. In the  mean time, I ask for respect and privacy while I continue to navigate this  stressful time. As devastating as this experience has been, I do feel very  fortunate to have such an amazing group of people that have been fighting  alongside me and supporting me throughout this nightmare.  Thank you.

Coach Jerry Schumacher

To The Track and Field Community: 

In January of this year, I was notified that Shelby had recorded a positive drug test in December 2020. The positive test was for a substance called nandrolone, something that neither Shelby nor I had ever heard of. Shelby was placed on a provisional suspension as we tried to understand how this test could have happened. 

Over the course of the past six months, I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to know about drug testing—about the procedures and organizations that govern our sport. What I’ve learned has eroded all the faith I had in their ability to fairly serve and protect clean athletes. 

Throughout this process we were confident that the truth would lead to justice. What I’ve come to learn instead is that anti-doping authorities are okay with convicting innocent athletes so long as nine out of ten convictions are legitimate. That is wrong. It is my understanding that our drug-testing technology is now becoming so sensitive that anti-doping labs are catching increasing numbers of clean athletes. Shelby’s positive test was for an exceedingly small amount of a substance that is known from WADA’s own studies to be present in certain types  of pork—less than 12 hours after she ate at a Mexican food truck that served pig organ meat. I do not understand how any competent and unbiased body could fail to conclude that Shelby is  innocent. 

Shelby was treated unfairly at every step of this process. the AIU refused to charge her for months, despite no additional evidence being presented, opting to leave her in a provisionally suspended state until they were forced by Shelby’s legal team to charge her and agree to a  hearing before the CAS so that Shelby could compete at the Olympic Trials. I believe if this had  been USADA handling her case it would have been handled differently. At the very least, I’m  confident she would have been treated fairly. 

Shelby, I know you and I know the type of athlete you are and, far more importantly, the type  of person you are. I don’t have the words to articulate the depths of sadness I feel right now for  you. I want you to know that you are not alone, and I can only hope that in the coming days and weeks that you will feel supported by the very best aspect of our sport, that being the track and field community. 

To my coaching colleagues and friends in track and field: You are the ones who know me. You know me as a friend. You know me as a competitor. You know me as an imperfect and flawed human. But you also know how I feel about doping and know that I would never disrespect you by allowing or supporting it in any fashion. I will lean on you the most during this time because we have been gifted with an incredible opportunity to work with young, passionate people and none of us should ever have to watch one of them go through this. It is now my understanding that “friendly fire” casualties in the war on doping are acceptable, and we should all be

outraged by that. No clean athlete should have to go through what Shelby is right now, and we need to demand better for our athletes. 

To the clean athletes that I’ve coached against: You have every reason to be confused and distrustful of people in this sport. You are forced to witness and compete against dopers all the time. You are also led down roads of confusion that make you question everyone and everything. I understand. I do it too! All I can tell you is that I’m sorry this adds another layer of doubt. Shelby, your competitor, friend, and teammate has had her entire career taken away from her for something she didn’t do. Not all of you will believe me and many of you will be skeptical. But to those that do, you should be outraged that this can happen. You should be outraged that the powerful organizations in our sport are not protecting you. The similar ordeals that Jarrion Lawson, Ajee Wilson, Brenda Martinez, and now Shelby have gone through  should never have happened. You should be outraged that this has happened to your  competitors, but you also be outraged that it can happen to you. You should demand better  from your sport. You need to demand better from your sport. 

To the powerful organizations that can enact change: Where are you? What are you doing? Why does this continue to happen to clean athletes? My understanding is that here in America we come into contact with many contaminants that can lead to positive tests in our food, fluids, and supplements. It is also my understanding that USADA is aware of this and accounts for this in their analysis of each case. Yet Shelby is still in this position. To borrow a leading anti-doping official’s response to me, “how many lambs will be led to the slaughter” before we address this issue? 

Finally, to the AIU and WADA: Shame on you! Shame on you for not caring about the truth. Shame on you for using athletes in a political chess match. You got it very wrong this time and that is not okay. It’s not okay to be right nine out of ten times when deciding to execute someone’s athletic life and dreams. You do not deserve this power. 

What we are witnessing here is a great tragedy in the history of American distance running. Not only is Shelby an exceptionally talented athlete, but she has also developed her talent through hard work and discipline. She is tough as nails. She is an exceptional teammate. She loves to compete. She just might be the best 1500m runner in the world this year, but we will never get the opportunity to find out. And that’s a tragedy. 

Over the past six months I’ve learned that certain organizations in track and field have abandoned clean athletes. We need drug-testing, and aggressive drug-testing at that, to work towards a cleaner sport. I will always support that. But the system is broken. It is a system that no longer protects clean athletes and instead ruins them. We can only assume that this will continue to happen if we, coaches and athletes, continue to accept it. I hope that we demand better from our sport, because our athletes deserve it. 

Jerry Schumacher

Coach Shalane Flanagan

It’s Saturday night, June 12th 2021. 

I’m sitting in bed trying to put pen to paper with a broken heart; grieving over what was and what could have been. 

I am devastated. 

I am gutted. 

I am broken. 

I am overwhelmed. 

I am sad. 

I am angry. 

I am so so mad. 

Shelby Houlihan, formerly my teammate, now my athlete, who I consider like my little sister, has been convicted of a doping violation that removes her from the sport of track and field for 4 years. 

In December of 2020, she ate dinner from a local Portland food cart. She unknowingly ordered a burrito with meat that contained Nandrolone. The following morning Shelby was drug tested by the AIU. The tests by WADA are now so sensitive that they pick up trace amounts of banned substances from unexpected sources. 

I have followed Shelby from high school in Iowa through the collegiate ranks at Arizona state and then helped recruit her to BTC in 2015. 

We were teammates for 4 years before I became one of her mentors and coaches. In these years of training alongside Shelby or coaching her trackside I’ve had an up close glimpse into this incredible young woman. 

Who is Shelby? 

From where I stand: 

She is a woman comfortable in her own skin. 

Unapologetically dares to simply be herself. 

She is a kid. 

Playful. 

A homebody. 

Has a smile that makes you want to smile. 

An obsession for everything Harry Potter and a deep affection for her cat Miko and family. But ultimately Shelby just LOVES to run. 

With every fiber of my being I know Shelby did not cheat and would never. All Shelby has ever wanted to find out in every workout, every race is: how good can she be?

We are living a nightmare that we can’t seem to wake up from and my concern is that if this tragedy can happen to us then it can happen to you: coaches and athletes. 

The guiding principle for myself and what I instill in my athletes is, “it’s great to be fast, but it’s better to be a great person.” 

Shelby is a GREAT person. 

I’m desperately trying to understand why this has happened. 

How can this happen to an innocent person? 

How has the sport and governing bodies failed her so badly? 

How could we not protect her? 

I’ve experienced plenty of heartache in my own career; losing out on medals and dreams to those who cheat. 

But I would rather lose all my medals and wins to dopers than to witness one innocent athlete be robbed of a life they’ve earned. 

If this is where the sport I love is headed, then I don’t know if I can continue to be part of it. I refuse to believe this is acceptable and neither should you.