Former World 800m Champion Just Finished Up SECRET 4-Year Ban For Evading A Drug Test

Update at 11:07 pm. We have a new article on this matter. WADA has told us that technically Aman could have competed while his case was under appeal for nearly 4 years so he still has 3+ years on his ban to go. But the AIU’s database lists Aman’s suspension as having concluded on February 15, 2025. LRC The Mo Aman Saga Gets Stranger — WADA Says He Still Has 3+ Years on His Suspension Despite Not Competing Since 2020)

Ethiopia’s Mo Aman, the 2013 world outdoor champion and two-time world indoor champion at 800 meters, recently finished serving a four-year suspension that was not publicly announced until after the ban had concluded. LetsRun.com realized this morning that the Athletics Integrity Unit’s (AIU) database lists Aman as having served a four-year period of ineligiblity from January 30, 2021 – February 15, 2025 for evading and refusing to submit to a drug test. Yet Aman’s suspension remained a secret until this year; the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) decision in his case is dated February 20, 2025, five days after his period of ineligibility expired.

Initially, in March 2021, Aman was banned for four years by the Ethiopian National Anti-Doping Office (ETH-NADO) stemming from an incident in January 2021 in which he evaded a drug test. An ETH-NADO appeal panel overturned that decision in June 2021, freeing Aman to compete, only for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to appeal that decision to CAS in September 2021.

There is no mention in the 23-page CAS decision of why more than three years elapsed between WADA’s appeal and the publication of the decision. LetsRun.com has approached CAS, WADA, and the AIU for comment.

Aman, 31, is his country’s greatest ever 800-meter runner, with his 1:42.37 personal best nearly two seconds faster than any other Ethiopian has run. During David Rudisha‘s reign over the 800 meters in the early 2010s, Aman was the rare athlete who could challenge him. Aman handed Rudisha his only 800m loss of 2011, defeating him at the season-ending meet in Milan. One year later, Aman defeated Rudisha at the 2012 Diamond League final in Zurich; once again it was Rudisha’s only 800m defeat of the season.

With Rudisha injured in 2013, Aman won 800-meter gold at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, with American Nick Symmonds claiming silver. Aman also won golds at the 2012 and 2014 World Indoor Championships. Aman has not competed at a global championship since the 2017 Worlds and has not broken 1:47 in the 800 since 2018.

Aman finished 6th in 2012 Olympic 800-meter final, which was voted LetsRun.com’s Race of the Decade for the 2010s. Aman ran 1:43.20 in a race in which seven of the eight finishers set personal bests and all eight ran under 1:44 — the first such race in history. Aman is the second athlete from that race to subsequently serve a suspension; silver medalist Nijel Amos was handed a three-year ban in 2022 after testing positive for the banned substance GW1516.

The case details

Aman’s suspension stems from an incident that occurred at a training session at the Addis Ababa Stadium on January 30, 2021. According to the CAS decision, doping control officers (DCOs) arrived and requested Aman to submit to an out-of-competition urine test. Aman asked if he could retrieve his passport from his car before submitting his sample. The DCOs agreed.

At that point, Aman sped off in his car and was never tested. DCOs went to Aman’s house to test him two days later, but he was not there. Aman claimed that, on his way to his car at the stadium, he had received a call that his wife’s uncle, Jemal Mustafa Emam, had died in a car accident. Aman claimed he immediately went home to collect his family, then drove to Bale Robe, 250 miles away, for the funeral, staying for 10 days.

WADA argued that multiple elements of Aman’s explanation were unbelievable or fraudulent, including:

• The DCO accompanied Aman to his car “but neither saw him on the phone nor believed that he had a phone with him at the time.”
• Aman changed his story. In his initial explanation to ETH-NADO, Aman claimed his wife had called him to inform him of her uncle’s death. In his appeal to ETH-NADO, Aman claimed someone else had called him and he wanted to drive home because he did not want to inform his pregnant wife over the phone.
• WADA argued it was “entirely unrealistic” that Aman could not take one minute to explain the situation to the DCO before departing.
• There was no explanation as to why or how Emam’s funeral would be held at 10 p.m. on the same day he died, as Aman claimed.
• The evidence Aman provided to the ETH-NADO appeal panel consisted of two handwritten notes. The first was in English and described Emam being admitted to Goba R1 Hospital to receive an IV. The second, a Farmers’ Association announcement of Emam’s death, was written on lined paper in Amharic. A WADA investigation found no record of Emam being admitted to hospital on January 30, 2021, nor did it find any records of Emam dying or being buried on that day, according to Agarfa Woreda Anbentu Farmers Association Kebele.

CAS said it sent repeated notifications to Aman via email and traditional mail informing him of WADA’s appeal and asking him to produce documents as part of his defense, but Aman never participated. CAS appointed a sole arbitrator, Carine Dupeyron, who, decided to rule on the case without a hearing given Aman’s lack of participation. Dupeyron instead made her decision after reviewing WADA’s arguments and evidence and Aman’s defense and evidence from his ETH-NADO appeal.

Dupeyron ruled in favor of WADA, disqualifying all his competitive results from January 30, 2021, and handing him a four-year suspension starting from the issuance of the CAS award on February 20, 2025. But because Aman has not competed in the last four years (his last race was February 14, 2020), he was credited with having already served the entire suspension, with his period of ineligibility concluding on February 15, 2025 — four years after his initial provisional suspension began. As a result, Aman is currently eligible to compete again.

Significant questions remain about the timeline in this case. WADA filed its appeal to CAS in September 2021, and CAS spent the next few months collecting WADA’s Appeal Brief, requesting answers and documents from Aman, appointing an arbitrator, and deciding on a procedure for the case. CAS notes that WADA signed the Order of Procedure, which summarized the proceeding, on April 11, 2022. All of that is typical for a CAS case.

But that April 11, 2022, update is the most recent specific date mentioned in the CAS decision until the very last page of the decision, which is dated February 20, 2025. There are no details about when or how long it took Dupeyron to render her decision. Nor does the CAS decision explain why it was dated February 20, 2025, and not published until this year. Or why a former 800-meter world champion was allowed to serve a four-year suspension in secret.

Talk about this unusual case on the LetsRun.com forum/messageboard: Breaking: Former 800m world champ just finished up a secret 4-year drug ban

Update at 11:07 pm. We have a new article on this matter. WADA has told us that technically Aman could have competed while his case was under appeal for nearly 4 years so he still has 3+ years on his ban to go: The Mo Aman Saga Gets Stranger — WADA Says He Still Has 3+ Years on His Suspension Despite Not Competing Since 2020)