20-year-old Adaejah Hodge lost 17 months and two medals after testing positive for banned substances at the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima. At the time, she was 18 and had won gold in the 200m (22.74) and silver in the 100m (11.27). In doing so, she became the first athlete from the British Virgin Islands to win 2 medals at a single World U20 Championships. However, the results were later overturned as she tested positive for a banned substance. Now, after serving a 17-month suspension, she has broken her silence on the case.

On June 12 at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Hodge ran 10.63 seconds in the 100m prelims (breaking Sha’carri Richardson’s record), one of the fastest collegiate sprint times ever recorded. After the race, she was asked about her suspension: “Do you feel like you did anything wrong in that situation?” She responded: “No, I did not. I told the truth.” But what exactly led to that situation in the first place?

The answer goes back to August 2024. On 28 and 30 August, during the World U20 Championships in Lima, Hodge provided two samples that tested positive for GW501516 sulfone and GW501516 sulfoxide, metabolites of the banned substance GW501516, also known as cardarine. As per AIU findings, the violation was ruled not intentional, meaning she did not knowingly take the substance.

That result changed everything. Her performances from Lima were disqualified, including her gold in the 200m and silver in the 100m. At the time, Hodge, who represents the British Virgin Islands, had just finished competing under Montverde Academy in Florida, where she had developed into one of the fastest young sprinters in the system.

The sanction that followed was a two-year ban, which is the standard penalty for a non-intentional violation involving a non-specified substance. However, the case also included a key detail that reduced the final outcome. Under Rule 10.7.1, she received a seven-month reduction after providing “substantial assistance” to investigators, which changed the length of her suspension.

That adjustment set her eligibility timeline from August 2024 to January 2026, but the case itself stayed out of public view at the time. It remained confidential because investigations were still ongoing behind the scenes.

“There are, however, some exceptions to this rule – where Public Disclosure may be delayed – and one of these was the Adaejah Hodge case in which the athlete provided Substantial Assistance to an important ongoing investigation. Announcing her case earlier could have jeopardized the other investigation. The timing of the AIU’s announcement related solely to this case and the related investigation – nothing else,” the AIU said.

By the time the case was made public in March 2026, Hodge had already completed her suspension and returned to competition. After running 10.63 in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, she spoke about the period away from the track and how she lived through it.

“I was being a normal student. I was still at every practice, even though I was separated. I still made sure to go and support my teammates on the sidelines… So, it was very hard for me. But like I said, God got me, man. I was just in my Bible every day, and I’m still in my Bible every day…” And while that chapter explains the pause, her rise explains why her name remained in the spotlight.

Adaejah Hodge – one for the future?

Adaejah Hodge’s progress started early and never really slowed. She trained at Montverde Academy, where her performances quickly went beyond school level. By 2022, she was already named Georgia High Schools Association Track and Field Athlete of the Year. Not long after, she signed with the University of Georgia, stepping into the next stage of her career.

In 2023, everything moved up another level. In March, she ran 22.33 in the indoor 200m at New Balance Nationals in Boston. That broke the US high school record by a big margin and placed her second all-time behind Allyson Felix, just before her 17th birthday.

But still she kept improving outdoors. She set a new national junior 100m record twice in April 2023, first 11.12 and then 11.11. Soon after, she set a new British Virgin Islands 200m record with 22.60. In doing so, she broke a mark that had stood since 2007. By the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, she had already stepped onto the senior stage.

She continued to make strides in 2024. She competed on Montverde’s record-breaking 4 x 400m relay team before her Olympic debut in Paris at 18. She finished the 200m in 22.70 seconds to become the first athlete from her country to reach an Olympic 200m semi-final as the youngest competitor in the field.

When she returned in 2026, she came back strong right away. For Georgia, she ran 7.16 in the 60m and 22.53 in the 200m indoors. She then won the SEC title in 22.32 and followed it with the NCAA indoor crown in 22.22, finishing clearly ahead of the field and helping her team win the title.

Her outdoor season was even stronger as she ran 10.77 in Gainesville in April to catch second place on the NCAA all-time 100m list and 21.92 in the 200m at SECs. She then got her biggest line ever. She also set a wind-legal time in June in the 100m, breaking Sha’Carri Richardson’s 2019 collegiate record with a 10.63. It was also a new world record for under-20s, and she was among the top-10 fastest women in the world for the 200m.

Let’s not forget it came in a semi-final, which means even more attention is on what she will do next.