A U.S. Olympic runner blamed a pork burrito for a positive doping test

U.S. Olympic runner Shelby Houlihan is claiming a pork burrito was the reason she blew a drug test and was disqualified from this summer’s Tokyo Games and international competition for the next four years. Houlihan said the burrito she purchased from an “authentic Mexican food truck” near her Oregon home 10 hours before her December urine test had likely caused her to test positive for the steroid nandrolone, which increases strength and improves physical performance. Weird as that sounds, there’s some research to bolster the athlete’s claim. In fact, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) funded a 2015 study that found trace amounts of nandrolone in pork and warned athletes of the potential for false positives. But the agency offered Houlihan little sympathy for the potential stitch-up. After Houlihan received a negative test taken five weeks later, WADA confirmed there was no buildup of the steroid in her system. Still, as Vice reported this week, the group maintained that she violated the World Anti-Doping Code and failed in her “personal duty” to ensure no banned substances entered her system. 

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