Nijel on doping, depression

Nijel Amos discusses the doping ban, Tokyo 2025 World Championships, DJ Zorro, fatherhood, depression and an upcoming documentary, PATRIOT: Speaking of setbacks, the doping ban. It’s a topic that has been discussed a lot, can you share your side of the story. What exactly happened? 

NIJEL: Yeah, the doping situation was probably one of the toughest things I’ve had to deal with in my career. After the Tokyo Olympics, during the 2022 season, I had a race in Morocco where I tested positive for a substance called GW1516. It’s a banned substance, but what made it strange for me was that I had been tested multiple times that year—before and after that race—and all my tests came back negative. This particular test in Morocco was an anomaly. The amount of the substance in my system was so small that it couldn’t have had any performance-enhancing effect. In fact, it’s not even a substance that’s available on the market anymore. 

PATRIOT: That must have been frustrating for you, especially since you’ve been a professional athlete for so long and have always played by the rules.