American 1,500m record holder Shelby Houlihan prepares for a comeback after a doping ban

American 1,500m record holder Shelby Houlihan has served her doping suspension and hopes to challenge Faith Kipyegon and other 1,500m competitors this season. Four years ago, Shelby Houlihan was banned for doping after testing positive for the banned substance nandrolone. But she is ready to make up for all the years she lost.

Shelby Houlihan denied knowingly taking the banned substance and insisted it entered her body through a contaminated pork burrito. The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected her argument and handed her a four-year ban, and now she is back.

Shelby Houlihan has missed a string of competitions, including the 2022 and 2023 world championships in Eugene, Oregon, and Budapest, Hungary. She has also missed two Olympics – the postponed Tokyo 2020 and the Paris 2024 Olympics.

After her return, the American 5,000-meter record holder told her agent that her main goal is to get back to her peak form and continue to be main competitor in middle-distance running.

The American has been training and even competing in three races. She has competed in two road races in Iowa in 2022 and 2023, as well as the Beer Mile World Classic in 2023.

She said probably 3:57 min. Which is mind-blowing.

“I fully expect her to get back to where she was very quickly. Of course, there are four years of cobwebs that you have to brush out. But everything about her training indicates that she will immediately get back to the level that she was at”, said her agent Paul Doyle in an interview with Letsrun.com.

“Everything about who I was and what I worked for my whole life was taken away and discredited in an instant. I had to face consequences for actions I never chose to take”, said Shelby Houlihan. “Four years have passed. I did. I feel relieved, happy and proud that I was able to get through it, but I also still feel incredibly angry and sad that I had to. I still don’t have any real answers about what happened four years ago. I don’t know for sure what happened, but some of the things I’ve seen are inconsistencies in standards and protocols, a lack of transparency and a lack of accountability within the governing bodies for anti-doping. Unfortunately, the athletes and the sport seem to be the ones who are suffering”, added she.