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Houlihan, now 31, maintained that she was never intentionally doping and said a tainted pork burrito she ate was the source of the drug—an explanation most people in the running community found unsatisfying. She appealed her suspension, her appeal was denied, and Houlihan missed the pandemic-delayed Olympic Games in 2021 in Tokyo as well as the Paris Games in 2024.
Her ban lifts on January 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. But now she is allowed to train with other pros. The terms of the suspension say that she is permitted to start working out with other runners two months before the racing ban ends.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Runner’s World after the end of the training ban, Houlihan said she has been living in Beaverton, Oregon, with her boyfriend and running about 80 to 85 miles per week. (Beaverton is also home to Nike headquarters, and Houlihan’s Strava shows she has been training on the Nike track.) She hopes to begin racing during the indoor season. She has hired Paul Doyle as her agent in an effort to find a training group and sponsor and get into races. Her previous agent was Stephen Haas with Total Sports.
Houlihan noted that Doyle represented American long jumper Jarrion Lawson, who tested positive for a steroid and was banned for four years. But Lawson was able to appeal his ban with the Court of Arbitration for Sport and had the ban overturned. (Lawson said the positive test was due to tainted beef.)
Houlihan’s previous training group, the Bowerman Track Club, would have her back, she said, but Nike sponsors that group, so she would need a Nike sponsorship to run with the group. It’s not clear yet whether Nike executives would welcome her return, and in emails between Runner’s World and Nike communications executives, they did not immediately offer clarification. Her agent is also in talks with other shoe companies.
“I’m still kind of in that limbo of trying to figure it out,” Houlihan said. “I really do want to be a part of a team. That’s something that’s super important to me. I like feeling that team atmosphere, that we’re working toward something, having fun with your friends, feeling like you belong somewhere. I’ve not been able to have the last four years, which has been really difficult.”
Looking ahead
At times over the past four years, Houlihan has struggled to maintain her motivation to keep training, and she’s not in the weight room as often as she was when she was competing. But she did do two time trials in the spring—she ran 2:03 for 800 meters and 4:02 for 1500 meters, showing her that her old fitness is still there. She had planned for additional time trials this summer, thinking she was in 3:57 shape, but scrapped them when she had some knee pain for about two weeks. She has also made altitude training trips every year.
But about 18 months ago, she went through a period of anxiety when she’d go to a track and see other runners there.
“I was having a full-on panic attack,” she said. “Do they know me? Are they going to be mean to me? Do they believe me? Just kind of spiraling, and so I kind of got to a point where I was like, how am I supposed to compete in a year and a half if I can’t even show up to a track and not feel this way?”
Houlihan sought treatment from a sports psychologist. It helped; she feels more confident. But she admits to some apprehension about returning to racing.
In her lowest moments, she imagines getting “absolutely booed by the crowd, and people not treating me very kindly,” she said. She worries about competitors giving her the cold shoulder. “I’ve pictured, like, people throwing burritos at me, everything that you could possibly picture,” she said. “I hope none of that happens, but I don’t know. I just hope it’s not the worst-case scenario that’s in my head. But even if it is, I do feel like I’m prepared to handle that.”
At least one competitor is hoping Houlihan doesn’t face abuse, either.
“I don’t want her to be booed on the start line,” said Nikki Hiltz, the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials champion, who ran 3:55.33 for 1500 meters and came within 0.34 seconds of Houlihan’s American record. “It makes me feel sad and uncomfortable, but at the same time, there probably will be some controversy with her coming back in the sport. She might get booed, or she might get harassed online, or whatever it is. As someone who has dealt with that to my own extent [Hiltz identifies nonbinary], I’m never wishing that upon anyone, and I hope she’s treated with love and respect.”
Through an online program with National University, Houlihan has been getting a master’s degree to become a certified mental performance consultant. She’s finished the coursework; now she needs 200 internship hours, working with athletes.
She sees it as a future path when her competitive running career ends. “It could be a cool way for me to give back to the sport,” Houlihan said, while noting she doesn’t want to be in the same position she was in during the summer of 2021, when she had exhausted her appeals and had nothing to do. “I just didn’t want to be where it’s like, Okay, now what? Like, what am I going to do? So I wanted to have a little bit of a plan.”
Having considered the worst-case scenario of her return to racing, Houlihan offers her version of the best-case scenario when she pins on a number again: “Feeling supported, feeling like people want me there and want me in the sport,” she said, “and want to see me succeed and do well.”
BYU Sweeps NCAA XC Team Titles is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Other Hearst Subscriptions, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
