Another Russian athlete tests positive
Doping continues to dog OAR team
A second Russian athlete failed a doping test at the Pyeongchang Games, a day before the IOC’s executive board was to decide whether to reinstate the country for the closing ceremony.
Russian Bobsled Federation president Alexander Zubkov said a drug-test sample given by Nadezhda Sergeeva was positive.
The Russian delegation said in a statement the substance was trimetazidine, a medication used to treat angina. It affects metabolism and is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“She confirms she took no such medication and the team confirms she was not issued any medication,” said Zubkov, a former bobsledder who was stripped of two Olympic gold medals for the Russian doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Games. “Federation representatives at the Olympics” are starting to prepare a defence, he said.
Zubkov also said a sample she had given five days earlier was negative. The IOC said later it had been informed of the positive test by the Russian delegation.
Sergeeva’s crew finished 12th in the women’s bobsled, after she had given the sample that later came back positive.
The Russian team was barred from the Olympics in December for doping at the Sochi Games, but the IOC invited 168 athletes from the country to compete as the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR).
The IOC set out the criteria for Russia to be reinstated, and the latest doping cases are a setback.
“This won’t win us any extra credit,” Russian delegation leader Stanislav Pozdnyakov said. “Unfortunately, this case speaks to negligence by the athlete. She has let us down.”
A group of influential antidoping organizations has urged the IOC not to reinstate Russia in time for the closing ceremony.
The Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations says the IOC “can’t merely ‘wish away’ the most significant fraud in the history of sport,” adding that “by failing to impose a meaningful sanction on (Russia), the IOC would be culpable in this effort to defraud clean athletes of the world.”