Russian high jump Olympic champion Anna Chicherova yesterday vowed to clear her name after testing positive for doping at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, casting doubt on her participation in Rio.
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) on Tuesday said that 14 of its athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics — including Chicherova and nine other medalists — tested positive in new tests on samples given during the Games, as Moscow faces allegations of state-organized doping.
“For me, it is the most complete shock. I cannot explain how it could have happened,” said Chicherova, who hopes to compete in August’s Rio Games if Russia’s team is allowed to enter.
Photo: AFP
Chicherova is the reigning Olympic high jump champion after winning gold in London in 2012. She won bronze in Beijing.
“I was always sure what supplements and medicines I was using,” she said. “I hope I can defend my name as clean.”
The announcement came after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that 31 athletes from 12 nations had failed doping tests of their samples from the Beijing Games.
While Russia has not officially named its athletes, a list was aired on Match TV channel and Chicherova confirmed she had indeed received notification that her sample showed evidence of banned substances.
She described her present situation of waiting for the final results after a second sample is tested on May 31 or June 1 in Switzerland as “very painful and unpleasant.”
The Russian athletics federation on Tuesday said that, if allowed to compete at Rio, it would bar any athlete found to have used doping in previous years.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) next month is set to rule whether to lift Russia’s provisional suspension from Rio over evidence of state-sponsoring doping. A delegation from the IAAF was set to visit Russia for the final time yesterday before deciding whether it can take part in the Olympics, Russian athletics federation president Dmitry Shlyakhtin said.
The latest doping revelations came as Russia is reeling from damning accusations by the former head of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory at the Sochi Winter Games, Grigory Rodchenkov.
He told the New York Times of a systematic state-organized scheme to avoid anti-doping rules, including at least 15 medalists at the 2014 Sochi Olympics as well as the Russian Ministry of Sports and the Russian Federal Security Service.
The Russian athletics doping scandal was earlier brought to light by whistle-blowers, including runner Yulia Stepanova and her husband, Vitaly Stepanov, a former employee of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency.
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