Why didn't Christian Coleman compete at the Tokyo Olympics? A look back at his suspension

Christian Coleman was world champion in the 100 meters in 2019. But his window for Olympic gold in the event appears to have shut.

Coleman failed to qualify as an individual sprinter at this year’s United States Olympic Trials, finishing fourth in both the 100m and 200m races to fall agonizingly short of making it to Paris on his own. He will, however, have a chance to earn his first medal as part of the 4 x 100m relay this summer.

So why didn’t Coleman, who would have been one of the favorites among male sprinters, compete in Tokyo during the 2020 Games? It involves missed drug tests and a telltale Chipotle receipt.

Coleman served a two-year ban during the 2020 Summer Olympics

Coleman had run one of the fastest 100m sprints in history in 2019 and was primed to enter a Usain Bolt-less field as the men’s favorite. However, a missed drug test in December 2019 — after missing two others earlier in the year — put him in the crosshairs of an Olympic tribunal. Coleman explained he’d been Christmas shopping but had returned home within the hour required of drug testers to wait for him.

This argument was entirely dismissed by those judges. He was done, at least in part, by a circumstantial burrito:

“Shopping receipts show that the athlete was shopping at least from 7:13 pm, also purchased a Chipotle at 7:13 pm and finally purchased 16 items from a Walmart Super Center at 8:22 pm. The athlete’s evidence was that he returned home briefly some time between 8 and 8:10 pm, ate his Chipotle while watching the kick-off and then went out again. We do not accept the athlete’s evidence.

“It would have been simply impossible for him to purchase a chipotle at 7:53 pm [the store being five to nine minutes from his residence], drive home, park the car, go into his residence, eat the chipotle, then watch the kick-off of the football game which only started at 8:15 pm, and thereafter go out again in his car, drive to the store and pick up 16 items at the Walmart Supercenter so as to be able to pay for them by 8:22 pm.”

That missed test led to a two-year ban that lasted into 2022 — nine months after the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics finally took place in Tokyo in 2021. Coleman’s world record time in 2019, 9.76 seconds, would have been enough to win gold that night.

Instead, he’ll have to hope the 4 x 100m relay breaks his way in what could be the 28-year-old’s final Olympics.