One of Ethiopian long-distance running’s most decorated champions, Gudaf Tsegay, has been issued a four-month competition ban following a positive doping test that detected a banned aromatase inhibitor in her system. The 29-year-old, a two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist, has not competed since last October, months before the case became public.
Tsegay’s athletic resume includes a 5,000m world title in 2022, a 10,000m world championship crown in 2023, and a bronze medal in the women’s 5,000m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. She also claimed bronze in the 10,000m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships held in Tokyo, her last major competitive appearance before stepping off the track.
The positive result emerged from an out-of-competition doping test conducted last December, where analysts found a metabolite of Letrozole, a substance classified as a prohibited aromatase inhibitor on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned list. Clinically, Letrozole is primarily used to treat breast cancer by reducing estrogen levels in the body.
When the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) notified Tsegay of the positive finding in late January, the runner responded within 24 hours to confirm she had been prescribed the drug to treat a officially diagnosed medical condition, and submitted full supporting medical documentation to back up her claim. In February, Tsegay filed an application for a retroactive therapeutic use exemption (TUE) with World Athletics, the governing body for international track and field. World Athletics confirmed that her ongoing treatment aligned with WADA’s international standards for approved TUEs, but WADA ultimately rejected her request for a retroactive exemption granted under exceptional circumstances.
Following the rejection, Tsegay entered a formal case resolution agreement with both WADA and the AIU to settle the violation without extended litigation. In an official statement announcing the ban, the AIU noted that the four-month sanction was deemed appropriate under anti-doping rules governing cases where the athlete bears minimal to no fault or negligence.
The length of the ban was determined based on multiple mitigating factors: Tsegay’s limited degree of fault, her immediate and honest admission of the violation, the confirmation that her use of Letrozole met WADA’s TUE standards for medical need, and the formal finding that she would have been approved for a TUE if she had submitted the application before taking the medication. The ban has been backdated to 1 June 2024, and will remain in effect through 30 September 2024.