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A National Treasure on the Rise, Then Hit With a Doping Allegation

Related Topics: Peter Bol

A star Olympic runner from Australia was suspended over a positive drug test of a kind that critics have called alarmingly open to human error.

Peter Bol of Australia after winning the silver medal in an 800-meter race at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, last year.Credit...Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MELBOURNE, Australia — Few professional runners become household names. But in Australia, Peter Bol, a middle-distance runner of Sudanese descent, is something of a national hero.

At the Tokyo Olympics, where he was the first Australian man in 53 years to compete in the 800-meter Olympic final, he hurtled into his compatriots’ hearts after he placed fourth in a nail-biter race.