Compton ends career with four-year doping ban

USA cyclocross star Katie Compton has been banned for four years after returning an adverse analytical finding for anabolic androgenic steroids in a September 2020 test.

US Katie Compton pictured in action during the Nationale Betafence Cyclocross Otegem'. Source: Getty Images

Compton, 42, tested positive for an anabolic agent as the result of an out-of-competition drug test on September 16, 2020. 

Compton fought the allegations, but ended being banned after the finding by USADA. 

"I provided a sample for USADA in September 2020 that came back negative for any banned substances, it was not even atypical. That news was communicated to me in the same way it has always been via a letter from USADA. I've received that same letter after every test I've submitted for the last 19 years," Compton said.

"In early February of 2021, after returning from a difficult race season, I learned that the same sample from September was re-analyzed due to a bio-passport irregularity and found to be positive for an exogenous anabolic steroid."

According to the USADA statement on the case, "her urine sample was analyzed using a specialized test, known as Carbon Isotope Ratio testing, that differentiates between anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) naturally produced by the body and prohibited anabolic agents of external origin. Anabolic agents have powerful performance-enhancing capabilities and can give an athlete an unfair advantage over fellow competitors.

"All AAS are Non-Specified Substances in the class of Anabolic Agents and are prohibited at all times under the USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee National Anti-Doping Policy, and the Union Cycliste Internationale Anti-Doping Rules, all of which have adopted the World Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List."

Compton denied the accusations against her, but said that she wouldn't be appealing the decision, the likely process would have been to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"This was devastating news to me as I have never intentionally or knowingly put anything like that into my body," said Compton. "I know how delicate women's hormones are, and I would never choose to take anything to jeopardise my health and, as a result, suffer irreparable damage to my endocrine system.

"And not only that, I never took anything for ethical and moral reasons; I've been a strong proponent of clean sport my entire career and feel doing anything to enhance one's own natural ability is cheating, full stop."

"Over the past six months, I learned that I cannot prove that I didn't intentionally take anything, and I can't afford to keep fighting knowing the outcome will be the same regardless. Unfortunately, seeing that it was five months between the sample collection and the notification, trying to figure what allegedly got into my body proved to be impossible, and I have decided to stop fighting an expensive and difficult battle and accept the sanction."

The 15-time national cyclocross champion of the USA’s four-year period of ineligibility began on September 16, 2020, the date her positive sample was collected, with the star of the cyclocross scene saying that she will retire from the sport after initially hoping to compete until the 2022 cyclocross world championships in Arkansas,USA.

"It is with great stress and sorrow that I've ended my competitive career," said Compton. "My friends and family know how much I'm against doping and know it is a topic in which I have always been outspoken. This news is gut-wrenching to me and the worst period I've ever experienced during my life so far.

"I've processed all the emotions over the past year and realized that I don't need bike racing in my life anymore. I still love riding my bike and enjoying that with friends, but I have no desire to ever race or be competitive again, which is probably good since the sanction includes a four-year ban from competition."