Norwegian track and field athletes say they have been advised to not eat meat when competing in China due to fears over testing positive for a banned substance.
Henriette Jaeger, the national record holder in the 400m, explained that Norway’s Olympic federation had encouraged her to avoid meat ahead of athletics events in China. Unn Merete Jaeger, her coach and mother, added this was due to concerns over the use of growth hormones in cattle farming.
Reuters reported Norway’s elite sport organisation, Olympiatoppen, which forms part of the country’s Olympic and Paralympic Committee, has stated in its guidelines that it advises its athletes to avoid “all types of meat” in China due to the risk of accidentally ingesting the banned substance clenbuterol. Olympiatoppen confirmed this was the case when approached by The Athletic.
Clenbuterol can increase metabolism and maximum heart rate, and is listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as a prohibited substance.
Jaeger won 400m world indoor bronze in Nanjing, China in March. The 2025 World Athletics Relays take place in Guangzhou on May 10 and 11, while there is a Diamond League meeting in Shanghai on May 3.
“Before we left, we were advised by the Olympic team to try and avoid meat as much as possible,” Jaeger told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK.
Josefine Tomine Eriksen, who was part of Norway’s 4 x 400m relay team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, added: “We won’t eat meat. I don’t want to be a ‘veggie’, but you have to have some protein, so I’ll bring some protein bars from Norway. Maybe some beef jerky.”
The Athletic has contacted Olympiatoppen, World Athletics and the Chinese Athletics Association for comment.
In July last year, ahead of the Paris Olympics, WADA said it was investigating the risk of meat contamination with banned steroid metandienone in China and elsewhere. This followed two swimmers, a shooter and a BMX rider testing positive for the substance in 2022 and 2023, before being cleared by the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA), which concluded the four cases were linked to meat contamination. The four athletes had been provisionally suspended before CHINADA closed the cases in late 2023, WADA said. WADA added that it was “concerned” about the number of cases in China and other countries that were being closed without sanctions due to the food contamination theory.
WADA has also previously cited Mexico as a country which has had issues with food contamination. American sprinter Shelby Houlihan received a four-year ban in 2021 after testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone, which she said was most likely after eating pig offal from an authentic Mexican food truck in Oregon.
(Photo: Martin Bernetti / AFP via Getty Images)