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American Olympic swimmer Michael Brinegar has been handed a four-year ban for blood doping.<\/b><\/p>\n
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) said Brinegar, 24, had irregularities between July to September 2022 found in his Athlete Biological Passport.<\/p>\n
It said the highly “abnormal blood values” were “caused by blood doping”.<\/p>\n
An independent arbitrator had cleared Brinegar of the violation but Usada appealed against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has issued the ban.<\/p>\n
It means Brinegar, who swam 800m and 1500m events at the Tokyo Olympics, is ruled out of Sunday’s final trial for the Paris 2024 US team.<\/p>\n
Brinegar, who is the son of former US Olympian Jennifer Hooker Brinegar, denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
“As an Olympian and the son of an Olympic swimmer whose US women\u2019s team faced an East German team that was systematically doping, cheating is a betrayal of everything I have been taught and stand for,” Brinegar posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n
“I am deeply disappointed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport\u2019s ruling and Usada\u2019s accusations that are utterly unfounded.”<\/p>\n
The decision comes after Usada criticised the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) in how it dealt with the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned drug<\/a> but were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n Chinese anti-doping chiefs found contamination was the reason for the failed tests, which Wada said it was “not in a position to disprove”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n