When Kenyan distance runner Faith Chepchirchir received notice of a four-year suspension from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) earlier this month after testing positive, twice, for the anabolic steroid norandrosterone, she admitted to the wrongdoing to receive a one-year reduction. However, she confessed she “couldn’t remember how the substance entered her body.”
The AIU has banned Faith Chepchirchir Kiprotich (Kenya) for 3 years from 23 December 2024 for Presence/Use of a Prohibited Substance (Norandrosterone). DQ results from 29 September 2024
Details here: pic.twitter.com/d5wS20f2ZC
— Athletics Integrity Unit (@aiu_athletics) January 14, 2025
The 23-year-old tested positive for the prohibited substance during in-competition tests conducted at the CZ Tilburg Ten Miles in the Netherlands on Sept. 29, 2024, and the Lisbon Half Marathon in Portugal a week later on Oct. 6. Chepchirchir happened to win both races, but since she was found doping, both results will be annulled, stripping her of titles, awards and prize money earned.
The athlete received notice from the AIU of her positive test on Dec. 20 and was given a few weeks to explain the adverse findings to the anti-doping organization. On Jan. 8, 2025, Chepchirchir wrote to the AIU accepting that she took the prohibited substance but could not remember how it entered her body.
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Norandrosterone is a metabolite of nandrolone, which can help distance runners accelerate muscle growth and recovery. The drug has been listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List since 2001. Like other anabolic steroids, norandrosterone is typically administered through injections.
The body does naturally produce norandrosterone, although in small amounts (usually less than 2 ng/mL in urine). When anti-doping tests find a higher-than-normal level in an athlete’s urine, it’s a red flag that they may have taken the banned substance. According to the AIU, Chepchirchir’s urine sample after the Lisbon Half Marathon on Oct. 6 showed a concentration above 15 ng/mL, well above the normal bodily amount, constituting an adverse analytical finding.
‘I don’t remember how I doped’, says Faith Chepchirchir pic.twitter.com/zUqXVPsECK
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) January 15, 2025
The AIU reiterated that athletes are “solely responsible for any prohibited substances found in their systems” and stressed the importance of upholding clean-sport principles.
Chepchirchir was the first Kenyan athlete to be handed a doping ban in 2025, joining 120 athletes on the Global List of Ineligible Persons already serving suspensions.
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