Christian Coleman sees doping ban reduced but will miss Olympic Games

Christian Coleman’s doping ban has been reduced to 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, though he will still miss this year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Coleman’s original ban was set for two years by the Athletics Integrity Unit after three whereabouts failures over the course of a year.

The new ban means he will be able to take part in events from November 2021, after the current date of the Tokyo Olympics which take place from July 23 to August 8.

The court said that "the athlete’s degree of negligence to be lower than that established in the Challenged Decision", as Coleman was not given a phone call by a doping officer at the address he was meant to be on December 9, 2019.

"Although a telephone call during the 60-minute window was not required by the rules, it was nevertheless reasonable for the Athlete to expect such a call, as a matter of standard practice among other Doping Control Officers," said CAS.

The 25-year-old American also missed tests on January 16, 2019, and April 26, 2019. Coleman previously missed three tests over the course of a year before June 6, 2018, but was not banned due to a quirk with the rules.

He won gold medals over 100m and the 4x100m relay at the World Athletics Championships in Doha 2019, and two silvers in the 2017 World Championships.

"While I appreciate that the arbitrators correctly found that I am a clean athlete, I am obviously disappointed that I will miss the Olympic Games this summer," Coleman said in a statement.

"I look forward to representing the United States at both world championships in 2022, especially the first-ever world championships held in the United States next summer where I plan to defend my world title against a new Olympic champion in the 100 metres."

Coleman was the favourite to win the 100m in Tokyo before his ban.