American Olympic swimmer Brinegar was banned for four years

US Olympic swimmer Michael Brinegar has been banned for four years for blood doping.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) said Brinegar, 24, had irregularities between July and September 2022 found in his athlete biological passport.

It said the “grossly abnormal blood counts” were “caused by blood doping”.

An independent arbitrator cleared Brinegar of the violation, but Usada appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which issued the ban.

It means Brinegar, who swam the 800m and 1500m at the Tokyo Olympics, is ruled out of Sunday’s final for Team USA at Paris 2024.

Brinegar, who is the son of former US Olympian Jennifer Hooker Brinegar, denies any wrongdoing.

“As an Olympian and the son of an Olympic swimmer whose US women’s team faced off against a systematically doping East German team, cheating is a betrayal of everything I’ve been taught and who I am.” posted Brinegar on Instagram.

“I am deeply disappointed by the ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and by Usada’s allegations, which are completely unfounded.”

The decision comes after Usada criticized the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) in its handling of the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned drug but were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

Chinese anti-doping chiefs found contamination to be the reason for the failed tests, which Wada said it was “unable to disprove”.