CAS clears Japan’s Olympic silver medallist Ikeda of doping, overturns ban

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has cleared Japanese race walker Koki Ikeda of a doping violation, overturning his four-year ban and making him eligible to compete again immediately.

CAS said on Friday it had upheld Ikeda's appeal against World Athletics, finding that the anti-doping charge against the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist had not been proven. The 28-year-old was provisionally suspended in November 2024 after abnormalities in his Athlete Biological Passport led officials to allege blood manipulation.

Ikeda, who has always denied the allegations, challenged the sanction at CAS in March 2025. A panel heard the case in Lausanne in May and accepted that several of his biological readings were abnormal, but concluded there was a reasonable non-doping explanation. CAS said Ikeda supported his defence with substantial medical and expert evidence, giving the panel a broader factual basis than the World Athletics tribunal had.

The ban had already taken a heavy toll: Ikeda missed the Japan Race Walking Championships in February 2025, and all his competitive results between June 20, 2023 and November 1, 2024 were disqualified.

Ikeda won 20km silver at the Tokyo Olympics and again at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, and placed seventh at the Paris Games in 2024.

In a separate decision announced the same day, Ethiopia's marathon runner Ruti Aga was handed a six-year ban after testing positive for methylprednisolone and misleading investigators, the Athletics Integrity Unit said.