The Ukrainian Olympic Committee has confirmed that one of their cross-country skiing competitors has failed a doping test at the Sochi Olympics.
Maryna Lisogor tested positive for trimetazidine, which was included on the list for banned substances effective Jan. 1, 2014.
Lisogor has since explained to the IOC’s Disciplinary Commission that she took the drug product Preductal not knowing that it contained the forbidden substance and thus broke anti-doping rules unintentionally.
A full statement is expected to be released shortly on the matter. Lisogor competed in the women’s individual sprint, classic, and team sprint.
Also, German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle has been excluded from the Sochi Olympics following her positive test for methylhexaneamine, which occurred on Feb. 17, the day of the women’s mass start.
Her fourth-place results in the mass start and mixed relay have been thrown out and her mixed relay teammates have also been disqualified.
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Before the IOC’s decision came down, Germany’s chef de mission, Michael Vesper, said that the substance was part of a dietary supplement.
“These are dietary supplements that she has had tested by laboratories – this is what her husband said as well,” he said in a press conference.
“She’s been taking these dietary supplements for a long time, continuously. Ladies and gentlemen, I do not want to speculate but we don’t know if it was possibly a supplement that wasn’t clean. At any rate, any athlete is responsible for any substance that enters their body.”
Vesper also added that Sachenbacher-Stehle was apparently “speechless when she heard what she was being charged with.”
“We have always warned our athletes about dietary supplements and the dangers that they might be harboring,” he said. “Athletes are aware of it and this is proof of the fact that this warning was justified.”
Italian bobsledder William Frullani had also been ejected from Sochi earlier following a positive test for dimetylpentylamine; the Italian Olympic Committee has said it believes he bought the stimulant over the Internet from the United States since it isn’t available in their country.
