By Canadian Press

Canadian runner DeBues-Stafford leaves Portland for Victoria over Houlihan case

Apr 12, 2022 | 9:49 AM

TORONTO — Canadian middle-distance runner Gabriela DeBues-Stafford has moved to Victoria to train, citing stress around the doping ban of her former Portland training partner Shelby Houlihan. 

DeBues-Stafford, who was fifth in the 1,500 metres at the Tokyo Olympics and fourth in the 3,000 at the recent world indoor championships, trained with the Bowerman Track Club in Portland for the past two years. 

But in a lengthy Instagram post, DeBues-Stafford said that the aftermath of Houlihan’s four-year doping ban in June hurt her preparation for the Olympics, and the fact the case is ongoing is proving too much of a distraction.

“Learning this news in mid-June almost derailed my Olympics,” DeBues-Stafford wrote. “It was a small miracle that I showed up in Tokyo in shape to run sub 4 twice in 48 hours and place 5th.”

DeBues-Stafford will train with Trent and Hilary Stellingwerff. Trent is a sport physiologist with the Canadian Sport Institute in Victoria, while Hilary, a two-time Olympian, is the head track and cross-country coach at the University of Victoria. 

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Houlihan holds the American record in the 5,000 and tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in December of 2020. Blaming tainted meat from a burrito, she appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but the ban was upheld. She has appealed to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

DeBues-Stafford, who holds seven Canadian indoor and outdoor records, said she tried to put the ongoing Houlihan case behind her this past fall.

“However this event and its ongoing aftermath continued to be a major distraction and stress for me. For the sake of my athletic performance and mental health, I needed to move on,” said DeBues-Stafford, who raced at the world indoors with her hair died yellow and blue in support to Ukraine. 

In Houlihan’s appeal to the CAS, her lawyers suggested she consumed boar meat from a food truck in Beaverton, Ore., to trigger the positive test. But the CAS ruled that particular truck doesn’t use boar meat. Also, the levels of nandrolone in her urine sample was two to three times higher than what would have been found from eating contaminated food. The CAS panel also ruled that the polygraph test and hair sample her team conducted weren’t sufficient to prove the doping wasn’t intentional.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2022.

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press