Russian bobsledder fails doping test

pulse

February 23, 2018 12:49 PM

A second Russian athlete at the Pyeongchang Games, a bobsledder, has failed a doping test, according to an official with knowledge of the situation, just hours before a decision on whether to allow Russia to march with its flag at the closing ceremony Sunday.

The athlete, Nadezhda Sergeeva, tested positive Friday for a performance-enhancing drug, though it has not yet been revealed what the substance was. The official declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the test.

The news came as anticipation grew over the International Olympic Committee plans to meet Saturday to decide whether to lift the suspension of Russia’s National Olympic Committee and allow its athletes to march with the Russian flag during Sunday’s closing ceremony.

The Russian delegation — banned for a state-orchestrated doping program that corrupted the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia — has presented a conundrum for the IOC, whose members disagree on how to handle the issue of the flag.

Danka Bartekova, one of the three members of a panel that will decide Russia’s fate at the closing ceremony, confirmed the group had met Friday. They are expected to present a report to the IOC’s executive board late Saturday afternoon, local time.

She declined to comment on the failed test. A senior IOC official, who is aware of the panel’s thinking, said they would likely not take the new failed test into consideration because the process of evaluating and confirming the sample was not yet complete.

The athlete also may have mitigating reasons for taking the substance. He said in normal circumstances, the IOC would not have known about the failed test at this point, but it did because it was publicly revealed by Russian officials.

Two other athletes had doping violations at the games, a Japanese speedskater and Slovenian hockey player.

The IOC barred Russia from sending a delegation to the Winter Games, though 169 athletes were given special dispensation to compete as neutral athletes because they were able to prove to a special committee that they were clean.

Yet the possibility that Sergeeva used a banned substance, and the case of another Russian athlete, Alexander Krushelnitsky, who won a bronze in mixed doubles curling and subsequently left the games after failing a doping test, will likely amplify doubts about the vetting of cleared athletes.

Russian sports officials here were not immediately available for comment.

The Russian Bobsled Federation president, Alexander Zubkov, told The Associated Press that Sergeeva had a clean test as recently as Feb. 13, and the banned substance was in a sample she provided five days later. He didn’t specify what was found. He said he had spoken with Sergeeva.

A follow-up test is usually done to confirm the results.

An IOC executive board member, Ugur Erdener, who will be part of the group that will make the decision, declined to confirm the case. “I know some things, but I cannot tell you all the secrets,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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