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Matthias Hangst / Getty Images
Christian Coleman of the United States celebrates winning gold in the men’s 100-meter final at the 17th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Doha in 2019.
Men’s 100-meter world champion Christian Coleman was suspended for two years on Tuesday and lost the opportunity to succeed Usain Bolt as the fastest man at the Olympics.
The Athletics Athletics Integrity Unit said it banned the American sprinter for two years, until May 13, 2022, due to three violations of doping control rules.
Coleman missed two visits from sample collection officials and failed to present the correct information another time, all in 2019, the year he won his first world title.
“We consider this case to involve the athlete’s behavior as very careless at best and reckless at worst,” the three-person judging panel said in its published ruling.
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Coleman can appeal against his ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Coleman, 24, had been provisionally suspended from competition since May. Weeks later, details of his three alleged “location failures” were revealed.
Athletes face a two-year suspension if they have three infractions in a 12-month period.
An earlier similar case against Coleman was dropped weeks before the 2019 world championships in Doha, Qatar.
Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images
Too fast: Christian Coleman of the United States defeats compatriot Justin Gatlin, right, for men’s 100-meter gold at last year’s world championships.
That allowed him to take gold in the individual 100 and 4×100 relay and establish him as a favorite to win titles at the Tokyo Olympics that have been postponed to next year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Jamaican icon Bolt has won the 100-meter race in the last three Summer Games.
The judges said there was no suggestion that Coleman ever took a prohibited substance.
However, even the panel noted that Coleman was in a pool of top-level athletes selected for unannounced testing since 2016 and “has received anti-doping education for several years.”
“The evidence indicated a total failure to (comply with the rules) on the part of the athlete,” the judges said.
Coleman previously blogged that his third and decisive whereabouts error, on December 9 of last year, occurred when drug testers showed up at his residence while he was out Christmas shopping.
Elite athletes must complete a “location form” so that anti-doping authorities can conduct surprise tests outside of competition.
A violation means that an athlete did not fill out forms that told authorities where they could be found, or that they were not where they said they would be when the evaluators arrived.
Coleman also took silver in the 100 and the relay at the 2017 World Cup in London.
