Doping cases put career on pause: Lasitskene

The Olympics are six months away, but Russia’s top track and field athlete has no idea if she’ll be there.

Mariya Lasitskene is a three-time world champion in high jump and a scathing critic of Russian sports officials, but even that’s not helping her case.

A double whammy of doping-related cases means that Russia’s track and field athletes are banned from international competition, and the Russian flag is excluded from the Olympics. Legal battles are set to rage for months. Lasitskene herself isn’t suspected of any wrongdoing and says she faces an agonizing wait.

“We’re all on pause right now,” she told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I don’t know what to expect or to hope for. All I can do is hope, wait and train.”

The immediate obstacle for Lasitskene is Russia’s suspension from international track and field, in place since 2015. After being vetted for possible involvement in Russian doping cover-ups, Lasitskene was handed a waiver to compete internationally as a neutral athlete, and won two of her three world titles without the Russian flag or anthem.

That system was abruptly frozen Nov 22 after five of the Russian track federation’s top officials were charged with helping another athlete present a fake alibi when he wasn’t available for drug testing.

Two months on, there’s still no word of when the neutral system will resume, if at all, and Lasitskene is close to canceling travel plans for early-season events in Europe. (AP)