Russia’s Match TV channel reported the names of the athletes as including 10 Olympic medallists.
Advertisement
While the IOC has yet to confirm the results Chicherova’s coach, Yevgeniy Zagorulko, told Tass: “Three days ago, Anna received a notice that her doping sample from the Beijing Olympic tested positive after a re-check and she called me”.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee announced it was re-testing hundreds of samples from the 2008 Olympics and said up to 31 athletes could be banned from the Rio Games.
“If WADA verifies such obstruction in the lead-up to Rio, then the entire Russian delegation should be barred not only from the 2016 Olympic Games but from global competition indefinitely – until full cooperation with the McLaren commission is assured, robust testing is in place and clear sanctions are established”.
The latest developments will complicate Russia’s campaign to prove it is compliant with anti-doping standards after being suspended from worldwide completion previous year by the global Association of Athletics Federations.
Silver medal winners whose doping retests reportedly came back positive are javelin thrower Maria Abakumova, 4×400 relay runners Anastasia Kapachinskaya and Tatiana Firova, and weightlifter Maria Shainova, the report said. The list could not be verified by Reuters.
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 Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, who prompted WADA to investigate their shocking allegations about the prevalence of doping in Russian athletics.
He says “so far this is at the development stage and this has not yet been finally confirmed”. “But all are aware of this and are dealing with the issue”.
He also pointed out that the allegations of a conspiracy to subvert the anti-doping process at the Sochi Olympics should be a matter for the International Olympic Committee and WADA.
The IOC had said up to 31 athletes could be banned from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Advertisement
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his late-night meeting with the heads of Russia’s sports federations in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015. “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.
