PawneeSports
02-16-2006, 07:36 AM
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Yahoo Sports News Article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_bia_biathlon_doping_tr4;_ylt=AvPeVT7k7dY65iDJT ANnm7wLMxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--)
Olga Pyleva is the name:
http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060216/capt.oly10202161222.winter_olympic_biathlon_russia _tr4_oly102.jpg
(AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
Russia's Olga Pyleva races to win the bronze medal during the women's mass start competition at the biathlon World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, in this Sunday, March 13, 2005 file photo. Pyleva was suspended Thursday Feb. 16, 2006 for failing a doping test, becoming the first athlete to test positive at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
Turin Gets Its First Positive Doping Test
CESANA, Italy -- Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was suspended Thursday for failing a doping test, becoming the first athlete to test positive at the Turin Games.
Pyleva, who won silver at the 15km event Monday, was scratched from the field just before the start of the 7.5km sprint, in which she was considered a leading medal contender. Without her in the race, France's Florence Baverel-Robert was a surprise gold medalist.
Pyleva also won gold and bronze medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
"The IOC has provisionally suspended the athlete for a disciplinary issue," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Thursday.
An IOC panel was convened to hear Pyleva's case. If found guilty, she would be thrown out of the games and stripped of the silver she won in the 15km event Monday ahead of Germany's Martina Glagow, who would be awarded the silver. Albina Akhatova, Pyleva's Russian teammate, would be awarded bronze.
The head of Russia's biathlon federation, Alexander Tikhonov, blamed the positive test on medication for a foot injury given to Pyleva by an unauthorized doctor in Russia.
He said athletes have been told repeatedly only to use medications approved by team doctors.
"We warned them a thousand times and again," he told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency. "Take only medical formulas that are in the team and come only to our doctors. I have no idea where that doctor who treated Pyleva's foot injury came from."
Tikhonov maintained Pyleva used an "innocent" substance to accelerate healing and has no performance-enhancing properties.
"One has to admit that all should be blamed on our illiteracy and irresponsibility," he said.
Under the IOC's rules, athletes testing positive at the Olympics are considered guilty if a banned substance is found in their systems, regardless of the circumstances.
The IOC has conducted 380 tests since the athletes' village opened Jan. 31; Pyleva is the first to be caught by the IOC's most rigorous doping control program ever at a Winter Olympics. A total of 1,200 samples are being tested, a 72 percent increase over the number in Salt Lake City, where there were seven doping cases total.
A Brazilian bobsledder who tested positive for steroids in a pre-Olympic drug test was the first athlete sent home from the Turin Games for doping. Armando dos Santos, a former hammer thrower, failed the test in early January when a sample showed evidence of the steroid nandrolone.
A dozen cross-country skiers were suspended five days for elevated hemoglobin, considered health checks — though they can also indicate possible blood doping. Seven of those have since been retested and cleared to compete; one failed a retest, and the other four had not yet been cleared.
Yahoo Sports News Article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_bia_biathlon_doping_tr4;_ylt=AvPeVT7k7dY65iDJT ANnm7wLMxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--)
Olga Pyleva is the name:
http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060216/capt.oly10202161222.winter_olympic_biathlon_russia _tr4_oly102.jpg
(AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
Russia's Olga Pyleva races to win the bronze medal during the women's mass start competition at the biathlon World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, in this Sunday, March 13, 2005 file photo. Pyleva was suspended Thursday Feb. 16, 2006 for failing a doping test, becoming the first athlete to test positive at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
Turin Gets Its First Positive Doping Test
CESANA, Italy -- Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was suspended Thursday for failing a doping test, becoming the first athlete to test positive at the Turin Games.
Pyleva, who won silver at the 15km event Monday, was scratched from the field just before the start of the 7.5km sprint, in which she was considered a leading medal contender. Without her in the race, France's Florence Baverel-Robert was a surprise gold medalist.
Pyleva also won gold and bronze medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
"The IOC has provisionally suspended the athlete for a disciplinary issue," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Thursday.
An IOC panel was convened to hear Pyleva's case. If found guilty, she would be thrown out of the games and stripped of the silver she won in the 15km event Monday ahead of Germany's Martina Glagow, who would be awarded the silver. Albina Akhatova, Pyleva's Russian teammate, would be awarded bronze.
The head of Russia's biathlon federation, Alexander Tikhonov, blamed the positive test on medication for a foot injury given to Pyleva by an unauthorized doctor in Russia.
He said athletes have been told repeatedly only to use medications approved by team doctors.
"We warned them a thousand times and again," he told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency. "Take only medical formulas that are in the team and come only to our doctors. I have no idea where that doctor who treated Pyleva's foot injury came from."
Tikhonov maintained Pyleva used an "innocent" substance to accelerate healing and has no performance-enhancing properties.
"One has to admit that all should be blamed on our illiteracy and irresponsibility," he said.
Under the IOC's rules, athletes testing positive at the Olympics are considered guilty if a banned substance is found in their systems, regardless of the circumstances.
The IOC has conducted 380 tests since the athletes' village opened Jan. 31; Pyleva is the first to be caught by the IOC's most rigorous doping control program ever at a Winter Olympics. A total of 1,200 samples are being tested, a 72 percent increase over the number in Salt Lake City, where there were seven doping cases total.
A Brazilian bobsledder who tested positive for steroids in a pre-Olympic drug test was the first athlete sent home from the Turin Games for doping. Armando dos Santos, a former hammer thrower, failed the test in early January when a sample showed evidence of the steroid nandrolone.
A dozen cross-country skiers were suspended five days for elevated hemoglobin, considered health checks — though they can also indicate possible blood doping. Seven of those have since been retested and cleared to compete; one failed a retest, and the other four had not yet been cleared.