Another Russian fails doping test

A second Russian athlete failed a doping test at the Pyeongchang Games, a day before the International Olympic Committee’s executive board is to decide whether to reinstate the country for Sunday’s closing ceremony.

Russian Bobsled Federation President Alexander Zubkov told The Associated Press on Friday that a drug-test sample given by Nadezhda Sergeeva on Sunday 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 stripped of two Olympic gold medals for the Russian doping scheme at the 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 Friday it had been informed of the positive test by the Russian delegation.

Sergeeva’s crew finished 12th in the women’s bobsled Wednesday, 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 under the Olympic flag. 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 in comments reported by Russian media. “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 AntiDoping 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 the ROC, the IOC would be culpable in this effort to defraud clean athletes of the world.”

Earlier this month, Sergeeva told the AP that competitors from other countries had warmed to her after she passed IOC vetting for Pyeongchang, which included an examination of her drug-testing history.

“I don’t know why, but they’ve started talking to us more than ever before. I feel it. Maybe it’s a sign to them that we’re clean,” Sergeeva said. At the time, she was training in a T-shirt with the words “I Don’t Do Doping.”

It is the fourth doping case of the Games. Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky was stripped of his bronze medal Thursday after testing positive for the banned substance meldonium.