SHELBY HOULIHAN SPEAKS! Issues statement, does RW Q&A & 90min podcast explaining her side.

There was no doubt Shelby tested positive. The possibility of it being from a contaminated burrito was assessed as being "near zero". As for Ayotte, she can testify to her own lab reports without it being a conflict of interest.

That contamination from a burrito is "near zero", as CAS heard.

That Nixon admitted what Shelby can't - her mistake.

She may have been taking nandro intentionally. We don't know. Sure, she could have easily dodged the test, but that would have looked pretty bad for someone as anti-doping as she is.

What we know is she took nandro orally, intentional or not. This is what the tests found. What is not important: if it would be beneficial, where it came from, or how long it is supposed to stay in her system. These arguments have no bearing on the test results.

Its my understanding that the tests show that she did not inject it. But so what if it wasn't chronic, maybe she took it one time and thought it would quickly exit her system. Maybe she wasn't feeling great and someone told her it might help, so she took it, thought it was out of her system and got popped. To me, that actually sounds like a reasonable risk to take. That's far more likely than tainted pork.

Tell me you didn’t listen to the podcast without listening to the podcast.

So Shelby states she made the burrito defense up. What a crook.

Who cares. She's still guilty and the more she talks the guiltier she sounds

best to keep quiet and let people think you are a cheat, than open your mouth and confirm it.

My take from most of this is - neither Shelby nor anyone Shelby lived or trained with believes that she intentionally ingested a banned substance. But Shelby has acknowledged a banned substance was in her body and her 'best guess' was the burrito because her team tried to investigate and test everything else. If Shelby never intended to cheat, then this is a sad tale for all runners to pay extreme close attention to what you put into your body or who is ever working on your body.

That said, the end result is that she is on her own until 2025 and she will still have a stigma for doping if and when she returns. It was the right thing for Nike to cut ties with her. Even if it will reconnect down the road, it would have been off-putting for Nike and BTC to maintain a relationship with her while she serves a suspension for which there are no more appeals.

question for the lets run legal brain trust -

Does Houlihan have any grounds/the ability to file suit against wada/labs/whoever else is involved in the testing process? Seems like she could easily prove financial injury.

You better believe if someone took away my livelihood, I'd be suing anything with a tax id. I find it strange she's not seeking any repercussions. or maybe she is and I don't know about it?

One other thing that I found strange is the communication. Who sends an email and then sits around for two weeks waiting on a response, then continues that pattern for a year before making the communication more formal? Why was there no legal action taken immediately? Why didn't they hire an intern to email them every 15 minutes until they get a response? Why didn't they go sit in the lobby of their building and demand a meeting? Why didn't Nike help out with that? They have plenty of lawyers who are pretty good at strong arming. Seems foolish to now be more aggressive about it.

I have yet to listen to the podcast but I feel like SH and BTC think Shelby got screwed because they probably feel everyone else is doing the same thing. You'd have to be very naive to not think everyone is taking supplements right up to the gray line of whats legal. Some push a little further, some dont push the boundary as far. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you weren't. I'd also think there probably arent any negative health side affects so they probably feel as though they aren't doing anything wrong if what their doing is actually good for them (obviously if youre going full blow doping, there will be negative side affects). Maybe she doesn't feel this way but if she does, it would have gone a long way if she just admitted she was pushing the limits and thought she didnt cross the line of whats legal. I personally have turned on Shelby because I feel as though she must assume I (and the running community) am a complete moron if she thinks I would believe her complete denial. If you get pulled over for going 80 in a 65, telling the cop you saw someone going 82 doesnt get you out of the ticket.

It's all so frustrating. I find myself even more upset by how she has doubled down on this false narrative of hers. Because I can understand the motivation to dope. When you're trying to be the best, when your goal is the Olympics, and your competing against world athletes who are likewise doping, and when your livlihood is on the line, choosing to dope yourself can seem like the only choice. I don't like or approve of it, but I can understand it. I could be prepared to forgive, if Houlihan had said, "Yeah, I did it. Because I wanted to be the best I could be, and in this sport, the way you do that is by doping, because cheating is so rife at this point, you either choose to dope too, or your accept you'll always be second best." She might even have remade herself as an advocate for greater change in the sport. Because maybe we're to the point where we need to accept doping as a reality, and establish a framework for its inclusion in the sport. I don't know, just thinking aloud here.

But the way she blames everyone else, casts herself as a victim, as a martyr, just infuriates me. It's clear she's a pathological liar, and a narcissist who will manipulate those around her. The way she has obfuscated the narrative.

Because it doesn't even matter why she had nandralone in her system, or what the intent was. Even if she HAD somehow gotten it from that tainted burrito, it's still her own fault, because at that level, you simply cannot take those kinds of risks. It's on you, the athlete, to know what you put in your body, just like it was on Sha'Carri Richardson to know that, as harmless as marijuana is, it's still a banned substance, and she shouldn't have been using it. There are elite athletes who will bring their own food when they travel, so they can know precisely what they eat, because the risks are so high, the consequences so great, if one ingests tainted food or drink or a supplement, gets a positive test result even for entirely innocent reasons.

If Houlihan had owned up and accepted her punishment, I'd be all for her getting a second chance. I might even be for a reduced sentence so she might have a shot at an Olympics in 2028. But as is? I'm glad for what she got, because it's a career ender. Because she doesn't deserve to be a part of this sport.

OK- I think she's guilty. I have been very vocal that we have to trust the system. It's wrong to make accusations about athletes who have never failed so, we have to accept the guilt of athletes who DO fail and can't exonerate themselves.

But, what if, just what if, she is innocent? What if she was sabotaged?

Emphasize- I said I accept her guilt.

It's just something to seriously talk about.

She likely can’t own up to it without implicating her teammates, BTC and likely Nike. There’s almost no chance she was doping all by herself.

It sure says something that this is the podcast she chose for her "tell all". Getting questions lobbed by a sycophantic high schooler really bolsters her case lol

“What if she’s innocent” is just not a subject to discuss because, as you said, she’s not. What if ruth jebet is innocent? What if jemima sumgong is innocent? What if anyone and everyone are innocent?

shelby is using her white American girl identity to promote this idea that someone like her could NEVER but she did.

Jerry says he never heard of nandrolone and told Shelby on her first call to him after positive the being pregnant can cause a positive test for nandrolone?!