Erriyon Knighton is one of the USA's emerging athletes. Even Jamaica's Usain Bolt said he was the athlete to watch at the Games. He won a bronze medal at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene and a silver medal over the same distance at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. At Paris 2024 he missed out on the podium, finishing fourth, despite having a better reaction time at the start of the race than the three medallists, Botswana's Letsile Tebogo and USA's Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles.

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Last March Knighton tested positive for trenbolone in a drug test. He was temporarily suspended. But in June an independent referee in the United States interpreted that result as being related to the consumption of contaminated meat. Trenbolone is commonly used in cattle to build muscle. On that basis, USADA allowed Knighton to participate in the Olympic qualifying trials.

Trenbolone has been detected on other occasions in drug tests. It is argued that it is used on livestock, but the effects on athletes are also to enhance muscle development. That is why WADA lists it as a banned substance.

The Athletics Integrity Unit has now decided to appeal this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The explanations given by USADA were not convincing, because it was not proven that Knighton was not at fault in this case. 

Travis Tygart, head of the US agency, believes the problem lies with the rules of WADA, the international agency. WADA was also on the verge of appealing the decision last June.

A new case of dispute opens between USADA and WADA. In the wake of allegations from the United States against several Chinese swimmers for using a doping substance at the Tokyo 2020 Games, there have been angry exchanges between the two bodies. WADA believes that if Knighton were a Chinese athlete, Tygart's opinion on the matter would not have been the same.