The Mo Aman Saga Gets Stranger — WADA Says He Still Has 3+ Years on His Suspension Despite Not Competing Since 2020

Update: On Friday, three days after this article was originally published, the AIU confirmed Aman is not eligible to compete again until 2028.

On January 30, 2021, Mo Aman, the 2013 world champion and Ethiopian record holder at 800 meters, was training at the Addis Ababa Stadium when 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, according to a Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) decision that was only recently made public, 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.

The Ethiopian National Anti-Doping Office (ETH-NADO) charged Aman with an anti-doping rule violation, and in March 2021, he was banned four years for evading a drug test and refusing to submit a sample. But Aman appealed the decision, and in June 2021, an ETH-NADO appeal panel overturned his suspension, freeing Aman to compete again, only for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to appeal that decision to CAS in September 2021.

Aman did not participate in the CAS appeal in which — amazingly, and for reasons not yet explained — it took CAS more than three years to issue a verdict. Finally, on February 20, 2025, CAS ruled in favor of WADA and imposed a four-year suspension on Aman. News of the suspension only came to light in the last few days when the Athletics Integrity Unit’s (AIU) database was updated to include Aman on its Global List of Ineligible Persons.

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. WADA told LetsRun.com that, during this period, “WADA repeatedly followed up with the CAS Office seeking the decision and/or an explanation for the delay, to no avail.” CAS did not immediately respond to LetsRun.com for this story.

Here is where things get complicated.

When LetsRun.com broke this story earlier today, we reported that Aman’s suspension ended on February 15, 2025 as that’s what the AIU’s database says and it is exactly four years from when he was first provisionally suspended by the ETH-NADO. On Tuesday afternoon, a WADA spokesperson told LetsRun.com that Aman still has three years remaining on his suspension.

The CAS decision noted that Aman’s four-year period of ineligibility would begin on the date of the decision — February 20, 2025 — with the caveat that “any period of provisional suspension and of ineligibility already served by Mr. Aman shall be credited against this 4-year period.”

Aman has not competed in a track race since February 2020, but WADA told LetsRun.com that Aman should only have been credited with serving 189 days of the ban as technically he was allowed to compete during the CAS appeal process. That 189 days consists of 114 days betweeen February 15, 2021 (the date Aman was first provisionally suspended by ETH-NADO) and June 9, 2021 (the date the ETH-NADO appeal panel overturned Aman’s suspension) plus the 75 days that have elapsed since the CAS decision on February 20, 2025.

“He has not served his entire suspension,” WADA head of media relations James Fitzgerald wrote in an email to LetsRun.com.

Update: The AIU told LetsRun.com on Friday that Aman has not served his suspension and that he is ineligible until August 29, 2028. Two notes on that…

1) The AIU website has been updated since this article was published but now lists Aman as ineligible until October 29, 2028. The AIU told LetsRun.com that is still a mistake and that the correct date is August 29, 2028.

2) Four years from February 20, 2025, minus the 114 days Aman served while provisionally suspended in 2021 takes us to October 29, 2028. So why does Aman’s suspension end on August 29? The AIU said the following:

“There is an explanation for the date change and the original discrepancy but that explanation should come from the ETH-NADO. The AIU wishes to reiterate that this is a national-level case.”

The case details

CAS said it sent repeated notifications to Aman via email and traditional mail in 2021 and 2022 informing him of WADA’s appeal and asking him to produce documents as part of his defense, but Aman never participated. In January 2022, 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.

In the appeal to CAS, 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.

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. 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. The CAS decision offered no details about when or how long it took Dupeyron to render her decision.

Aman’s Accolades

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.

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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